


Watchtower

by the_irish_mayhem



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Gen, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-17
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2017-11-25 23:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 56,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/644033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_irish_mayhem/pseuds/the_irish_mayhem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When research on the Tesseract begins, SHIELD recruits Jane Foster instead of Eric Selvig to harness the other-worldly artifact. When Loki raids the facility, he takes over the mind of the mortal woman his brother loves. The Avengers with Jane Foster in Eric Selvig's place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Glass

A freaking spontaneous event. This was not good. Dr. Jane Foster furiously tried to figure out what went wrong. She'd already told Coulson to begin evacuation a few hours before. "Are we sure there was no power surge?" she asked an assistant. Again.

The laboratory in the deepest level of SHIELD's base of operations smelled of water and mildew. Jane was halfway convinced it was an airplane hangar that was converted into an experimental astrophysics ground zero. The concrete bunker was perfect to shield the cube's distinctive energy signature, and to absorb any errant radiation. It was militaristic, unsuprisingly, and as dank and unwelcoming as it came. It wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a definite upgrade from where she had been. (What the hell was that old building anyway?) And the equipment SHIELD gave her was top of the line. And her paycheck had quite a bump as well. Like, pay-off-all-student-loans-and-have-some-left-over bump in the paycheck.

All the improvements aside, her current situation had her mood lower than the floor she stood on.

"Yes, Dr. Foster. All of our electrical stimulation has been holding steady. We haven't had any surges in the past 3 and a half weeks."

She logged into the data sets, looking at the power outputs that were steadily climbing into critical range. And none if it was from them. "Crap." If the Tesseract went critical, the whole base would come down. Possibly beyond that. Agent Hill had asked for a minimum safe distance, and she found that she couldn't give her one. That was a terrifying prospect.

And that was one thing that absolutely could not happen. "We've cut the power, so this thing is running off of itself now." Her mathematical mind paged through any number of things that could have caused the Tesseract to turn on, coming up blank. The only thing that she could think of was tampering from… the other side of space. Frick.

She'd agreed to work on this project on the basis that the Tesseract was pure, unlimited energy, and that was a potential she could not ignore, especially in her concentrated efforts to create her own wormhole so that she could finally, finally bring Thor back. And all of her possible design sketches she'd worked up required massive, massive, massive amounts of energy. Like, more energy than could be produced by human means. Even Tony Stark's famed Arc reactor wouldn't be able to generate nearly incalculable amounts of energy.

With the Tesseract, she'd hoped her problems would be over after she finally found what made this blasted cube tick. As it turned out, the thing was just plain frustrating. It seemed as if the thing was purposefully screwing with her. When those interesting thoughts entered her brain, she would become concerned for her sanity. Again. Her obsession with finding Thor often had her mind spinning with doubts. Doubts if they even had something, doubts if he even wanted to come back, doubts if he was even alive. The list of possibilities of why he hadn't returned yet tumbled through her mind whenever she stopped thinking. Nighttime was the worst.

At that moment, Director Nick Fury entered the room. Double crap."Hello there, Director." Her voice was flat.

"Doctor, what is going on?"

She glanced up away from the screen, seeing the stony face of the SHIELD director staring her down. She swallowed briefly, not quite nervous yet, as she strode out to meet the man with the Pirates of the Caribbean eye patch. "The Tesseract is… not cooperating."

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

Yikes. "That's actually the most apt description I can give you. It's… behaving. We turn off the power, it turns it back on."

"How soon can you pull the plug?"

"The Tesseract is a power source. You can't exactly get it to shut itself off, Director, and if it reaches peak level-"

"We prepared for this, Dr. Foster," Fury interrupts, well aware of the ramifications, "Harnessing energy from space."

Jane sighed, "I could try, but since my algorithms aren't complete, there's no telling what might happen. We could blow this joint to Asgard if we're not careful."

Foster was one of the few who casually acknowledged the existence of the other 'realms' as she'd once said they were called. The other scientists were still tentative in grasping the idea of other living beings out there, some quite hostile. But many refused to outright disagree with her since Jane was the head researcher on the project. Phase Two was their way of combating that. Dr. Foster was very hesitant on that part of the project, constantly saying that SHIELD can only use the weapons if they were invaded by another realm, and not on other human beings. She'd made them sign a legally-binding document that made sure they could not use her calculations in a war with another nation on Earth. Or Midgard, as Fury remembered that she'd so gleefully joked to many people's discomfort.

She tucked a pen behind her ear, "It's throwing off some radiation interference. Just low-levels of gamma rays."

Fury gave her a pointed look, "That can be harmful."

She would've chuckled if the situation were not becoming exponentially more dangerous, "No shit, Sherlock," but she waved a hand, "it's dissipating too quickly to do any real damage." She headed back to the data collecting station, behind a computer screen where she would fruitlessly search for an answer.

"Understood," Fury said, and glanced around, noticing the absence of one of his most trusted agents. "Where's Agent Barton?"

Jane didn't even have to look around for the reclusive SHIELD agent as she ventured over to where the Tesseract was being held. "As usual, the Hawk's up in his nest." Fury called Hawkeye down from his post, and the two walked out of Jane's earshot. She was glad, since distractions were pretty detrimental to her fixing of this thing. If it even could be fixed. Which she was beginning to doubt as she gently tried to prod the cube with an electrical probe. She felt the jolt and immediately yanked back. This thing had created its own energy-force field. Cool didn't even begin to describe that statement. She couldn't allow herself to get excited however, as her concern began to grow at the possibility of this thing going critical. She paced in front of the cube for a few minutes, occasionally writing down a few observations on a clipboard.

She set it down on one of the desks and looked around or a lab assistant. She had an idea she needed to bounce off someone. "Can we check the relays? If we overload the circuits, it might give us enough time to figure out-"

Her sentence was left unfinished as the glow of the blue cube intensified. "What the hell?" Crap. Crap, crap, crap. "Everyone get back!" Jane shouted, shoving her assistants off the platform. Not that a few feet would do them much good. She rushed to one of the computers, seeing that the energy was off the charts. Literally. The program was crawling, trying to handle the influx of readings.

She heard a tremendous noise, like the most bizarre tearing sound she'd ever heard, looked up to see a blue stream of light, creating what looked like a shimmering doorway to somewhere in outer space.

The theoretical physicist in her swooned.

An Einstein-Rosen bridge. She finally had one.

She couldn't help the thrilled grin that spread across her face. Success. She could taste the wonderful feeling on the back of her tongue.

She could only hope that the data was being recorded so that she could replicate it later on. She had the data. The fact that she had it thrilled her to the toes, that she had almost everything she needed to bring Thor back. Her heart fluttered excitedly at the thought of seeing tall, blond, and dangerous (as Darcy had so succinctly named him) again.

Her mind was so awhirl with what this meant to her research, she barely noticed the black and blue-clad figure coalescing from the window.

As suddenly as it had happened, the window closed, and the Tesseract let off a wave of intense blue energy that made Jane's hair whip around her face, and wash over the rest of the SHIELD employees. She didn't miss the blue energy rise, gathering at the apex of the massive dome above them. Jane marveled at the swirling mass of blue as it roiled, curling and dipping with no detectable pattern. She was seeing energy. Seeing it. Absolutely unheard of. A demonstration of the physical properties of energy. She felt another science swoon coming on.

Her eyes snapped to the figure that appeared on the platform. Not only was that an Einstein-Rosen bridge, but something, no, _someone_ , had crossed it. She prayed again that the computer had recorded the data. Her mood was in the clouds. Her research had been advanced _years_ in the matter of forty five seconds. Her eyes flicked away from the figure (she still wasn't exactly absorbing the ramifications of what was happening on the platform) and to the computer screen. Elation when she realized that she had all the data.

She looked back up only to wish that she hadn't.

The figure rose slowly, and for the first time in a long time, true and complete fear gripped her as she saw the man's terrifying expression. She forgot all the physics. Whoever this was, they were clearly not friendly. Cold aqua-green eyes. Dark, shoulder length hair. Long, lean build. Angled features, sharp nose and chin. _Who the hell is that?_ Questions raced through her mind, but her body was paralyzed with the uncertain fear. In fact, his eyes were filled with such coldness she felt fear thrill up her spine.

"Sir, please put down the spear."

Fury's command seemed to go absolutely unheard. The man contemplated it briefly, the glowing staff in his hand, before looking back up at the SHIELD agents currently cornering him. With a quick gesture of his hands, a pulse of blue that looked scarily alike what was just released from the Tesseract blasts several SHIELD agents.

Chaos.

There were people firing at him, and the bullets bounced off of him, completely ineffectual, as he takes down more agents. Jane was in motion by then, her breath coming in quick pants as she desperately tried to get as much data off of the computers as possible. What she was going to do afterwards was a little more fuzzy. Run with it? Probably not with those glowing pulses taking down man after man. She wouldn't get five feet.

She watches as Barton leaps at the man who'd just entered their realm, obviously trying to subdue him. He's stopped, almost effortlessly, and that scares her a lot. She'd seen Hawkeye fight once or twice and she'd never seen him just... _stopped_. "You have heart." His voice is soft, calm, made it all the more cold and terrifying. His accent sounded so much like Thor's she felt a pang in her chest. The nostalgia was forgotten as she felt panic rise in her gut as she saw him raise his spear, preparing herself to see it driven through Agent Barton's chest. Despite his aloof, reclusive persona, she liked the man. Instead, the tip was delicately placed against Barton's chest, and she saw a flicker of the blue energy sink into him, flickering up his body to his eyes, where the pupil dilated much farther than physically possible, and then changed from his normal gray to unnaturally pale blue. Barton holstered his gun, standing at attention to this man as though he were awaiting orders. _What the hell is going on?_

"Please don't. I still need that." Her focus is averted from where Hawkeye was still standing stock still, eyes trained on the man who'd just killed nearly all of the security, to the platform. She saw the Tesseract was no longer on it, and Fury was holding the briefcase that she knew has the technology to safely hold the cube.

"This doesn't have to get any messier." She recognized Fury's 'try-to-diffuse-the-hopeless-situation' tone.

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose-"

Paying no mind to the fact that she was interrupting him, she couldn't stop herself from saying, "Loki? You're Thor's brother." She remembered Thor's words about his brother, traded between them as they discussed their families after the Asgardian had explained Yggdrasil to her, _He's one of my best friends, but we are polar opposites._ She could see why. Loki's slim build and narrow features were in sharp contrast to Thor's broad body and strong facial features. The physical was only the beginning. Thor's presence was one of warmth, sans the blustering and egotism, and could take command of a room's attention by only breathing. Meanwhile, his brother's presence was almost _small_. Not exactly small, just... elusive. And cold. Very, very cold.

Her words drew his attention to her. His eyes flaming ice, a twisted smile creeped across his face, as if he'd just lain eyes on a prize. "And you must be the mortal harlot that has so ensnared my brother's lustful attention. Jane, isn't it?"

She swallowed thickly. She didn't know how to respond, and tried to not let the words lustful attention get to her. Fury responded for her, "We have no quarrel with your people."

Loki turned from Jane slightly, but still made his way slowly towards her. Her joints were locked. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki suggested nonchalantly, and she didn't miss an underscore of delightful superiority to his words. He turned back to Jane, carnal smile wetting his lips, "I could not have planned this better. Ah, the opportunity in coincidence."

She didn't understand his words, "What are you talking about? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I come with glad tidings," the Jotun brother of Thor said, as though everyone in the room should be as thrilled as he, "of a world made free."

"Free from what?" Fury asked. His voice was colored with an emotion of the same name.

His response implied that the answer was utterly simple. "Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart-" he whirled to Jane, and before she could react, placed the tip of his staff against her chest.

She only felt a moment of panic before she felt a cool hand cradle her, sweeping away her ethical inhibitions, and she knew then that she had to help Loki, and sweeping away any thoughts of helping Thor. Thor, who'd betrayed the man who'd shown her how to validate her research. Who had promised her that he would return but he didn't. For all she knew, she was just a fun fling for him. Meanwhile, here was his brother, offering her every single thing she'd striven to prove her entire life. To hell with the man she'd known for a week. She could feel exactly what Loki wanted of her, how righteous he was in his purpose. The freedom, the truth she experienced was liberating.

"You will know peace."

There was Fury's voice again, and Jane remembered that he had the Tesseract. She needed it to help Loki. "Yeah, you say peace. I kinda think that you mean the other thing."

Barton finally spoke after his lengthy silence, pacing over to Loki, "Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

Fury stared hard at Barton, obviously trying to figure what the fuck had happened to his most trusted agent.

Loki seemed amused. "Like the pharaohs of old."

Jane cast a nervous glance at the rolling, waving mass of energy that was becoming progressively more tumultuous. It didn't take a theoretical physicist to take a gander at what would happen next. The estimated time was another matter, but she easily calculated it. "The portal has inverted and is collapsing in on itself. We've got about two minutes before the shit hits the fan." She looked up at Loki, "This thing might go critical before we can get out."

Loki doesn't argue with her conclusion. "Well then." With only the barest of gestures from their new-found leader, Barton whipped out his sidearm, and nailed Fury in the chest. Jane didn't react. Loki's staff had made her see that his way was right, and Fury was standing in the way. She wouldn't mourn the SHIELD director. He lacked the idealistic vision of Loki.

Hawkeye snagged the case which Fury had dropped when the SHIELD sniper had taken him out, and turned to exit the laboratory. Jane followed, wanting to stay close to the object that would validate her entire life's work. Tremors shook the base, and Jane placed a hand on the wall to steady herself."We've got to move faster," she declared, urgency rising in her gut.

Barton picked up the pace, navigating the halls of the base like it was his own home. The tremors were increasing in frequency and force.

She followed the two men out of what was essentially SHIELD's basement, and got to the parking garage. Jane saw Maria Hill there, obviously trying to get the last of the agents out of the base. She turned to their motley crew, and her eyes were drawn to Loki. "Who's that?"

Barton didn't answer a moment. Jane took the Tesseract from Barton as they headed for one of the SHIELD pickups. "He didn't tell me."

Jane got into the vehicle cab, placing the case on her lap.

Barton was headed for the driver's seat when Hill's radio crackled to life, "Hill do you copy? Barton- has turned." She thought that the voice sounded like Fury. A rain of gunfire followed, and she saw Hill dive behind a wall. She distantly realized she'd never seen Hawkeye miss so many times before. She didn't think about it now. The only thing she could think of was that she hoped they got away fast because she knew the base was probably coming down soon.

"Hurry the hell up, Barton, unless you have a thing for getting buried alive."

"Got it." Despite not hitting Hill even once, Barton slid into the driver's seat, and gunned the engine. They took off speeding through the underground tunnel that would lead them out of the facility.

Jane tugged the silvery case closer to her chest as Hawkeye edged the pickup over 80 miles per hour. She heard another hail of gunfire, and she turned out of sheer curiosity to see that they were being run down by more SHIELD agents.

She saw that it was of no consequence as Loki fired off another blast from that glowing staff of his, effectively demolishing two wheels of the vehicle, making it flip into the other pursuers. She didn't rejoice in the loss of life. Jane hated violence, but now... suddenly it all seemed logical. Logical, and even necessary. They were preventing Loki from completing his plan. She couldn't quite figure out what the entire plan was, but she knew that she had to build Loki an Einstein-Rosen bridge.

So, with a deep breath, she turned back to the road in front of them. They were nearing the end of the tunnel, the seemingly endless nighttime desert stretching out before them. Jane could even smell the sage and cacti through the ventilation in the cab. She then heard a massive sound- crashing, moaning, breaking, smashing, just plain explosions rocking through her. She could feel the vibrations through her entire body, like feeling the bass of an intensely cranked up song on the radio, times about thirty thousand.

For a panicked moment, she thought they weren't going to make it. Alas, they were soon under the broad, dark blue sky instead of the imploding tunnel of SHIELD headquarters. The moon watches as the explosion pulled the base into the depths of the earth.

Jane allowed herself to think they were in the clear, she had her cube and her research. She was content as far as she was concerned until she heard the unmistakable _thwump-thwump-thwump_ of whirring helicopter blades.

Out of some strange fright, she tucked the case holding the Tesseract underneath the dashboard. Barton was still driving with a one-track focus, his now-blue, steeled eyes slicing into the darkness. His face was perfectly blank.

Jane leaned her head out the widow, unhindered by any thoughts of personal safety. She watched Nick Fury, still standing and very much alive, nearly hanging out of the chopper. He was squeezing off rounds at the car, and for the first time she ducked behind the protective roof of the truck, hearing bullets skim off the black surface.

The shooting didn't last long. Loki fired another blast from that scepter of his, taking out the rotary blades. The craft spun out of control, getting closer and closer to the unforgiving desert floor. She ducked back inside the cab to watch as Fury leaped from the dying helicopter, tucking and rolling himself in a way that seemed entirely too graceful for someone his age and size. Jane found herself thinking that it was probably mostly luck.

There was not a lot of doubt in her mind that they'd escaped. Honestly, the pursuers hadn't been much of a concern to her through the duration of their insane race through the base. She didn't really know why. Her emotional centers seemed dulled, unreachable. She'd mull over it later, she decided, as the truck's wheels churned through the thin desert sand, and silence permeated the air.


	2. Shatter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor learns of Loki's trickery on Earth, Odin withholds details, and Jane is lost in the fog Loki has put her in.

The last time he'd seen Heimdall, the ancient, all-seeing Gatekeeper of Asgard had informed him that Jane was still working to understand the Tesseract.

His father had told he and Loki the story of how the Tesseract was lost, when they were just small children. Thor had no memories of it, but the stories were enough to fill his mind with enough images of the Cosmic Cube. Odin's descriptions had painted a picture of an all-powerful cube, nearly limitless energy that could be controlled by no one but Odin himself. It truly was the jewel of Odin's relics, and it's power had made it possible to build to multicolored crystal rainbow bridge and the spectacular marvel of engineering, the Bifrost. It had been several years since Asgard still dabbled with the primitive humans of Midgard, the Cube had mysteriously gone missing. No evidence whatsoever. As if it glowing blue entity had simply vanished from the Relics vault. Odin had searched all the nine realms, picking through them with a fine-tooth comb, as Thor's father had described many times, but the Tesseract had never been found. Thor hadn't paid much attention to the story as a child, more interested in hearing of the glorious battles against Jotunheim, and Loki had been the one who'd wanted to hear the story of the disappearing Tesseract again and again.

Loki. The name stabbed through him, and a lifetime of happy memories conflicted with the final violent days of his brother. Odin had later told him Loki's true origins, that he was indeed a Jotun, the son of Laufey. It had shocked Thor, indeed, but it didn't change the fact that Loki had always been his little brother and his best friend. It made his betrayal and death all the more scarring.

The prince of Asgard leaned his broad torso against a marble railing on a balcony of the Palace. At one point in his life, he'd thought there was none a grander sight than Asgard in the sunlight. The sleek, golden buildings that soar upwards into the sky, the stone relics that still stood from generations passed, the iridescent sea which the glimmering rainbow bridge crossed, to the now-shattered end where the Bifrost once lay.

His fingers danced across the flawless, shining surface, as he found yet again that the horizon of Asgard seemed dull and lifeless compared to the beauty of Jane's smiling, laughing face. Of her look of determination as she drove her transportation contraption to where Mjolnir had crashed into the desert, and her flat response to his inquiry They've stolen my entire life's work. I don't have much left to lose. The faith she'd shown by letting him just walk on into the SHIELD facility to retrieve her research, back when he was so full of himself he was sure Mjolnir would recognize him. The look of curiosity and wonder on her face as he drew all the Nine Realms in her notebook, that he knew then that she could never physically show her. She was beautiful, not just physically (and he could swear that there was not a finer creature in any of the nine realms.) She took him in when he had nothing despite thinking that he was rather bizarre. She had been unfailingly kind to him, even when he was demanding and had an ego the size of Yggdrasil.

He thinks of her often, his Jane (and he wasn't sure when he'd started to consider her his) as well as Midgard, the beautiful little planet he'd seen so little of and fallen in love with as surely as he had the woman who had sheltered him. And despite their rather short courtship, Thor knew without a doubt that he loved her. Oh, how he loved her.

And he missed her so much it made him think having his heart torn out for all of Asgard to see may have been better punishment. At one point, Earth was his prison, a cage that would keep him from his home. Now his home was the cage, and Earth the unattainable goal.

He heard the doors open behind him, and Thor only spared the barest of glances at Lady Sif, gilded in white and red, coming through the doors. "It is unwise to be in my company now, my friend."

Sif only smirked, and proceeded to copy his position leaning against the railing. Her dark hair was pulled up in an elegant twist, exposing her shoulders and neck. Thor had always thought his female warrior friend was beautiful, but their love was never anything but platonic. They were like siblings, bickering, trying to one-up the other in battles and in sparring, and so on. "I'm well aware."

Not long after he'd returned to Asgard, it became evident how deeply he missed Jane, sinking into new depths of depression after he lost both Jane and Loki in a one-two knockout punch. Frigga, concerned at how despondent her oldest son had grown, had tried to pair him with Lady Sif, saying that Asgard would one day need a queen. Sif had been as mortified as he, and the two had vehemently refused to court the other. Frigga had been disappointed, but not surprised. ("I cannot forget Jane, Mother. I... I love her." Frigga only smiled sadly, placing an understanding hand on her son's cheek. "I know, my son. I know.")

"Did you have something you needed?" Thor asked, impatience seeping into his voice. He didn't mean to be so testy, but he couldn't help himself. It was a moment when he wished to be only with himself.

The relative levity of the moment evaporated in an instant as Sif hesitated minutely. Had he not known her so well, he would not have noticed. "Sif?" He was concerned now. "What is happening?"

"The Allfather must speak to you. Urgently."

The oddity was what struck him first. Why would his father send for him with Sif rather than one of the guards? And her hesitation... only when something big was happening would that happen. Then came the worry.

Sif was known for a dangerous blank face. Many a time she'd beaten the Warriors Three at various card games with that face. And yet she'd broken. Why? She obviously knew something that he did not.

"Sif, what has happened?" Thor asked again. Concern was raising in his gut. he was running through a mental list of the possibilities. Jotunheim? Without the Bifrost, they could not directly send ambassadors, but relations between the two realms had been slowly stabilizing since Laufey's death had signified the death of the grudge against Asgard. Despite Loki's treachery and involvement in the near-destruction of their planet, things had been getting better. At least as far as Thor knew. Asgard hadn't had any recent problems with the other realms... except for... Thor's heartbeat began to quicken. Please don't say it. Please don't say it...

She bit her lip. Another nervous tell he rarely saw. "There are... problems on Midgard."

And with that, he was gone.

He paced into the throne room with unfettered intensity and purpose. "Father, what of Midgard?"

Odin was seated on the throne, seeming more weathered and old than Thor had ever seen him. Thor was then standing in front for the throne, on one knee in greeting to his king before standing. That was when he noticed a crate full of Loki's belongings seated next to the throne.

Thor swallowed, trying to ignore the box but something told him it will be integral to his task at hand. Even the sight of Loki's most precious things makes the mournfulness return, burning the back of his throat and his eyes.

Odin's next two words nearly take Thor's legs from beneath him. "Loki lives."

He could not have felt more cold had he been stabbed by an ice dagger of the Jotuns. "Wh-what?" Loki... alive? How could it be? Thor had seen Loki fall, letting go of his staff only to be swallowed up by the Void. The look of emptiness, of brokenness and something akin to acceptance in Loki's eyes. As Thor knew it, it was an abyss, a never-ending stream of space that no creature, immortal or otherwise, could ever survive. Evidently, that was not completely true.

Odin finally stood to meet his son, leaning heavily on his staff to do so. "Your brother seeks to control Midgard." This time, Thor was almost convinced he would collapse. Caught up in his own grief, he almost doesn't notice Odin's own anguish at admitting what Loki's was planning to do. "Moments ago, he stole the Tesseract."

This time, his knees buckled, and he fell to his knees. The story, he was always so obsessed with the story of the missing cube... "What of the Midgardians guarding the Tesseract?" Jane. An entirely new wave of horror rolled through him. Those hatefully hissed words in the heated intensity of the moment just before battle breaks out, After I'm done here, perhaps I'll pay her a visit. He wants to wretch, and pure, unadulterated fear clenches in his stomach.

Odin stroked his beard in contemplation, worry evident in his wizened features. "Loki has shielded them from our view." Odin felt a small shard of guilt knife his soul. He did not want to lie to Thor. Odin, through Heimdall, had seen what had happened to the lovely Jane, but he needed very badly for his son to remain objective. Inasmuch as he could when dealing with the estranged Loki. Adding to the stress by telling his son that the mortal he obviously loved was under Loki's influence... it might break Thor. He couldn't have that happen.

And, Odin knew exactly why his adopted son had not made even the slightest attempt to disguise his malevolent efforts on Midgard. Loki wished for them to see. Wanted his adopted family to know exactly what he was capable of, the wrath of the supposedly scorned son. Those pained words, screamed by an emotionally traumatized boy rather than his grown son echoed in Odin's mind every day. I could've done it father! I could've done it!

Meanwhile, he could tell his other son was grappling with many things, conflict storming in his blue eyes, as he stood up. "My son, you must go to Midgard, capture Loki and reclaim the Tesseract."

Thor wanted to snort. He made it sound so simple. But something gave him pause. "There is another way into Midgard?" He couldn't keep the curiosity straining from his tone. If there was a way into Midgard, why had Odin kept it from him? He felt a sudden rush of annoyance and an even larger flare of anger.

Odin nodded, not oblivious to his son's emotions, and quickly quelling them, "There is, but it is a dark, dangerous path that should only be used under the most dire of circumstances." Thor was about to summon Mjolnir to his hand, ready to take on any challenge that may be keeping him from Midgard, from Jane and his brother, but Odin held up a calming hand, "Peace, my son. It is not a physical path I speak of."

Thor's only response was to shoot his father an impatient look. Riddles really wore on the God of Thunder, and the recent revelations had knocked away most of his recently garnered patience.

"You are familiar with dark energy, I assume?"

Shock crossed Thor's face. How could his father be suggesting such a thing? "The Infinity Gauntlet? But Father, to wield the Gauntlet is to beg for the gates of Valhalla!"

The Gauntlet was a mystical artifact, a metallic glove, fitted with the Six Infinity Gems: Time, Space, Mind, Soul, Reality, and Power. The Gauntlet had almost as much power as the Tesseract with the power to bend almost any aspect of the universe to your will. Thor didn't know the Gauntlet's origins, but Odin had told him enough, that it was dangerous, and did not belong in the hands of anyone who could use its power for evil and corruption. And he also knew of the risks of using the Gauntlet. Thor would think those would be enough of a deterrent for anyone considering using it, which was why he was so aghast at Odin even suggesting use of the Gauntlet.

Odin could only smirk, wry and tired, as he said, "I did say the path was dark and dangerous."

A lump raised in Thor's throat. "Father, I will not ask you to give up your life to send me to Midgard."

"The Odinsleep may protect me. Whether I will wake is a dubious matter," Odin suggested, and Thor realized that his father had thought it over, and knew that the Allfather would not be taking 'no' for an answer.

There was a pause after that. Thor was stuck in a moral imbroglio. Save Midgard, kill his father. Save his father, abandon Midgard. Abandon Jane. He gritted his teeth, and felt the burn at the back of his eyes again, the source much different. He felt frozen. His joints were locked, his jaw tight, eyes clenched shut.

Odin placed an understanding hand on his son's shoulder. "Do not protest, Thor. I've made my decision. You must look through Loki's belongings, and attempt to ascertain his plans. Prepare for your journey. I have things I must take care of."

. . . . . .

"It has to be able to block the cube's unique energy and radiation signature. Thick concrete or brick would do. Underground is even better."

The trio was no longer driving in the stolen SHIELD vehicle. They'd had to ditch it as soon as they could. Barton informed them that if they kept driving it, SHIELD could track them down easily. He casually mentioned all of the vehicles being outfitted with tracking equipment, and Loki had 'charmed' some unfortunate trucker at a rest stop to drive the truck to Canada, and put SHIELD off their tails for at least a little while. "If Fury doesn't figure it out, Natasha will," Barton had said.

They were now blazing along a remote highway through the Rockies. Jane had brought up the idea of a plane, but Hawkeye, being the super-spy that he is, had quickly nixed the idea, saying that they couldn't take any form of transportation that could be tracked. The car was nothing fancy, a recent-model Chevy truck with four-wheel drive, which they had 'borrowed' from the same man who was now driving their SHIELD truck towards Vancouver. He probably wouldn't make it, as SHIELD would find it very soon. Jane couldn't feel the sympathy that would normally fill her, viewing him as only collateral damage. Her mind warred with Loki's magic and quickly lost.

Jane was getting down to business now, and she'd gotten out one of her notebooks, filled with complex theoretical physics equations, laid out on top of the case which contained the Tesseract. She chewed the tip of her pen- a horrible habit she'd developed while she was thinking- and realized that now, with Loki's clarity, she could finally start to understand the Tesseract.

Barton seemed to toss her words around in his head a few moments before saying, "I know a place." That was all he said.

"Care to share?"

Barton didn't look away from the road as he said, "Old, abandoned building in northern Germany. The basement meets your requirements."

Concerned for the safety of her project, Jane asked, "Is the building tied to SHIELD?"

Barton shook his head. "Went there on a mission once. Had to lay low somewhere before I continued to follow the target."

"Who was the target?" she asked out of innocent curiosity.

Barton didn't answer, and Jane decided wisely to not ask again. The haunted look on his face and the dimming blue eyes told her to not ask. "We'll need an unregistered plane," he said instead, turning her attention back to the matter at hand.

"If we could stop somewhere that I could do my research, I could just beam us over there," Jane muttered quietly. After that, silence reigns. Loki hadn't said anything since the base. Barton had been directing them, keeping them off the radar, and Jane almost wonders if Loki is in there, in Barton's head, just using his knowledge. She didn't know, and hoped that wasn't true. She didn't want Loki messing with her research in her brain.

The trees and the mountains fly by, their tops dusted in snow, and a sentient Jane would've been thinking of Thor. But now, as the magic of Loki shields her brain from such thoughts, focusing only on creating a stable wormhole for the man who'd given her validation for her entire life's work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Infinity Gauntlet was a bit of the comic element I decided to add on the premise of the whole 'dark energy' thing that I was stuck on trying to write. I've changed a few things from the comic-verse to fit with the movie storyline. And, you do see a breif glimpse of the Gauntlet in the Thor movie in the weapons vault.


	3. Clarity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Jane begins to explain the inexplicable, Thor prepares for his journey to Earth. Meanwhile, Loki plots vengeance on his brother using the best leverage he has- Jane.

The basement was as musty and sad as the SHIELD basement, but with tunnels and brick arches. It was as remote as Hawkeye had said it would be, nestled deep in some strange-named German forest that Jane couldn't remember. All she knew was that the only access was a dirt path she wasn't sure was ever meant for motor vehicles, and that the building parameters would protect the Tesseract from the probing eyes of SHIELD. The building had the look of a large warehouse on the top floor, and by Jane's estimation, was probably used by the Nazis during World War II, considering the decaying parchments she'd seen scattered on the floor defaming the Jews and exalting Adolf Hitler.

Loki had picked up one of the crumbling leaflets, looking over the once-dictator of Germany and architect of the Holocaust. His face was blank and unfeeling, and Jane was uncertain as to whether or not he even knew who this man was. She decided to stay quiet as she watched him crush the paper in his palm and throw it back to the dusty floor.

Barton had then directed them to the basement, where she'd spent the better part of three days setting up her temporary lab. With Loki's magic and Hawkeye's connections, the lab was filled with the best of the best equipment, and she was no longer limited by government protocol or ethical restraint. Back when she'd first started researching wormholes, she'd wondered if she should even bother. Not only was she ridiculed by the science community before she'd published the Foster Theory, and even before the jests at her physics career, she'd done quite a bit of wondering if she should even look into worm holes. If they existed, and if she should even let the human race know about them. There always seemed to be a way to weaponize any discovery, and she didn't want anyone's blood on her hands... and Jane didn't want to play God. Her parents had been agnostic, but in her studies, she'd come to the conclusion that there must be some sort of... entity responsible. (The concept of the 'fine-tuned universe' had truly convinced her. The fundamental physical constants were just far too precise to assume they 'just so happened' upon themselves.) Not everything in the universe was calculable and predictable, which suggested a higher power. She didn't name it, or call it God or Allah or Yahweh. It was just there, and Jane had no intention of trying to take the universe into her hands. At least, she didn't before. Now, those ethical protests faded in the wake of discovery.

She told Barton that she would need lab assistants, and he said he'd get on it. She swore that man knew everyone on Earth.

But here they were in the dark basement, artificial light beaming from old yellow bulbs and bright white fluorescents. The Tesseract was out of its case, in a device that was similar to what it had been held it at the SHIELD facility. She wasn't performing any tests (she'd need assistants before she did any risky ones) but for some reason she did not understand, the answers were just coming to her, and her equations for harnessing the cube were almost complete. Once she finished them, she could begin the testing phase.

The smile that lit up her features was blinding as she realized how far she'd come in her research in just a matter of a few days. She hadn't anticipated getting to the testing phase for her designs for at least five or six years. And she couldn't wait. The validation of her life's work was the only thing on her mind, but something was fluttering in the back of her mind, a bigger reason than simple proof that she'd been right.

Something to do with Thor... She was stonewalled when she tried to search for the answer. Her head snapped up, the wall in her mind obviously foreign. She saw Loki staring at her, and she scowled. She wanted to tell him to stay out of her head, that she needed access to all parts of her mind to do this, and he was just blocking them. Again, Jane waged battle against Loki's magic, against the haze of clarity that coated every inch of her brain like a fine layer of dust. She felt the grip loosen, slide away as if they were taught strands that had just been cut, and for a moment all she felt was relief, clean and purifying, and then she panicked as she felt the clarity, the answers, sliding away with it. She needed those answers like the air she breathed, and she didn't know what she would do if she couldn't solve this. Thor needed her to solve this. And so, with the strength with which she'd fought his hold, she desperately clamored to get it back, and soon felt the haze resettle. And as it wrapped itself around her once more, thoughts of helping Thor faded so far into the distance, she could no longer discern them. Loki's magic was helping her solve this. She despised it, but she needed him. With a deep breath and closed eyes she tried to calm herself and looked back down at her work.

Loki would've sneered at Jane's attempt to shake him off, but he was caught off guard by the strength of her resistance. She had a strong mind, this mortal. And he was sure if looks could kill, Jane would be deadly if the cold glare she'd given him was any indication. The fiery little woman had challenged Loki's hold many times, whether she consciously or not. He no longer had his doubts about whether or not humans fight, or even completely break out, of his hold (that Agent Barton was turning out to be more of a nuisance in that area than Jane...) and he realized that as soon as Foster had completed her equation and built her device, she wouldn't need him any longer. It was a laughable suggestion that she could get away. He could constrict his magic around her mind until she was brain dead if he wanted to and she had no idea, and that thought made him a bit gleeful. But having Jane completely dead once the Chitauri took the earth... the option appealed to him. String her up in front of the humans, in front of Thor and enjoy their fear. He wasn't too proud to admit it would be a waste. She was above average intelligence, was certainly pleasant to look at in terms of physical attractiveness. Perhaps he could completely brainwash her, trick her into joining his side (imagine how much that would stick in Thor's craw)... he dismissed the thought. She was but a measly human; an insignificant speck in the grand scheme of things. But she was certainly an interesting specimen. Loki could at least partially understand Thor's strange fascination with their kind.

And Loki wasn't surprised that Jane Foster had caught his cocky and supercilious adoptive (always creating a distance) brother's attention. Thor had always been a huge sucker for a pretty face. And a game of cat-and-mouse always was an exciting challenge for the idiotic 'God of Thunder'. This Jane seemed like she would put up a fight if a man would attempt to win her affections.

He found himself wondering if Thor actually loved this mortal, or if she was one of various playthings that he'd shared his bedchamber with over the years. Regardless, Loki would use whatever leverage he had over the man who'd made his life a living hell. All he knew was that it was incredibly clear that the mortal woman was desperately in love with Thor. Pathetic.

He honestly hadn't anticipated seeing that little mortal skank with the Tesseract, but he couldn't have planned it better himself. Now he had the perfect thing to hang right over Thor's head. The possibilities spread before him, a devious grin twisting his face. Rape? Make her think he's Thor and fuck her, only to show her that's it's actually him? Lock her in her own personal nightmare with his magic until she can no longer scream? Make her watch a vision of her own death, of Thor's death, again and again and again? Delicious possibilities.

Something that would truly get under Thor's skin. Vengeance was a dish best served cold, after all.

Not yet, he decided as he watched his unwilling slaves do his bidding. He needed her to finish the portal. Then... then he would have some fun with her.

"Thor! Thor, help me!"

Her voice, echoing from somewhere. Where is she?

"Indeed, where is she, brother?"

He hears the voice of Loki, feels the panic when he realized that Loki has her. He has Jane.

There she is, there is a darkness surrounding her, and there's Loki, holding her up by her hair from behind her. She's bound and gagged, bloody and beaten, tears coming for those beautiful brown eyes. She looks terrified.

Thor wants to murder Loki. Rend his flesh from his bones, smite him with lightening where he stands, throw his hammer through that damned grinning face of his.

She doesn't make a sound as Loki drives the sharp end of his staff through her back, the blade appearing out of her chest, dark red blood oozing from the wound. Her death is soundless, and the look of shock and fear on her face rips Thor's heart from his chest.

She collapses to the floor. And he couldn't save her.

Loki's scepter is stained maroon with Jane's blood.

And all Loki can do is smile, and say, "She is doomed, Thor."

Thor woke with a sharp gasp, and a crick in his neck. He straightened to realize he fell asleep in a wooden chair leaning on a table, going through Loki's many, many books.

Thor felt like slamming his head against a wall. The box hadn't been at all helpful, so he'd been forced to retreat into Loki's library, where thousands of books and scripts lay with no detectable organizational system. The room was octagonal and the walls were completely made of shelves that stretched to the vaulted ceiling. Heavy, luxurious red carpeting seemed fitting for the expansive study, along with the crystal chandelier that hung from the ceiling offering a glimpse into Loki's desire for attention. There was a large wooden table in the center, which Thor was currently occupying.

He was out of his element, and he felt absolutely useless, and that nightmare had shaken him to the core. It all felt so real. So real as he watched the life drain from Jane's eyes.

With the rampant worry of his beloved in mind, he looked back to the book he was poring over. The urge to hit his head on something grew stronger.

This was not his thing. He was the warrior of the two of them, and Loki the magician. While Thor trained and became a solider, Loki fastidiously studied and became a master of magic and trickery. Through his studies over the past few days, he'd learned that his brother had an obsession with realms beyond Yggdrasil. Initially Thor had thought that Loki was looking for information about the hidden Tesseract.

But, as he read over the newest page, a small caption catches his eye.

The Chitauri- The Dark Army

A formidable force of beyond space, commanded by Thanos. Under the promise of a great reward, the army command may change hands at any time if Thanos wishes. The army is fabled to be infinite and invincible. To whit, none have proved the existence of such an army, although the Fables of the Ancient Battles speak of the Chitauri many times.

The Chitauri. Thor's gut told him that they would be important, and so, he goes off searching for the aforementioned Fables of Ancient Battles. He wasn't all that surprised when he found it right next to the spot he'd found the book where the caption was.

The book was obviously very old, and the cover was ornamented like those of old, with a wooden cover brandished with ornate golden vines and faceted gemstones of many colors. It had obviously been used relatively recently, as he saw modern signs of repair all along the spine.

He opened the cover, and the first page is the table of contents.

I. The First Battle  
II. The Battle of the Dark and the Light  
III. War of Yggdrasil  
IV. War of Ice and Fire  
V. Battle Against Fraudulent Peace  
VI. War of Thanos and the Chitauri

He didn't look past that chapter, quickly skimmmed through the others for mentions of this Thanos or the Chitauri, and didn't see any until chapter six came up. As he began to read, he realized this book was written a long time ago if the method of writing was any indication. The language itself, and the heavy, calligraphic script and bawdy illustrations that made it look more like a children's book than an educational text.

O muse, speak of the deeds of Thanos, commander of the Chitauri forces.  
Doubtful, his opponents stand, villainy and anger rampart.  
Sweep, they do, the branches of Yggdrasil burn as they fall.  
Multiply, they do, from a window in the sky, raining to the realms in fire and destruction.  
Conquer, they do, all the realms in putrid fire.  
Their weapon, a cube of power and blue.

Conquership, the goal.  
Dictatorship, to be.  
Power, the addictive narcotic.  
Success almost reached, until blocked the Chitauri were by forces greater.

With courage at the back as a tradewind, the realms gather to repel the evildoers.  
A common enemy the seek, they battle, as they come together like naught before nor since.  
The final battle, fire it is, as the Rebels battle the Empire.  
The winner, crowned they are, and the weapon of blue is lost to the cosmos.

The chapter was a scant three pages, the illustrations taking up the bulk of the paper. The first page depicted a physical Yggdrasil, with twisted, aged bark and branches, but darkened by fire (which the author seemed to have a small obsession with), and he recognized the falling branches as Jotunheim, Midgard, and Alfheim.

The next page depicted a nondescript figure, garbed in a flowing black robe that seemed to meld with the black sky depicted behind the figure. The only standout feature were age-faded ruby red eyes.

The final page was the most faded, and Thor could just barely make out a golden army meeting with a black army in the middle of the page on some unknown battlefield.

He closed the book with much on his mind. He needed to talk to Heimdall. He heard the door to Loki's study open, and saw a stoic guard enter. "Heimdall demands your presence."

He barely remembered the trip from the Palace to the shattered end of the Bridge. The massive, sword-wielding Gatekeeper stood passively as always, and didn't need to look back to see Thor approach. "This force, the Chitauri, is to be Loki's weapon in taking Midgard."

Thor had never been more unhappy to be right. "I knew it," he whispered brokenly. How could Loki do such evil? The man he remembered was his comrade, his best friend, his brother (as he later learned) in all but blood. Now Thor wondered if he'd ever known Loki at all, this vengeful, angry trickster barely even a shadow of what was his younger brother.

"Has he ceased in his shielding of the Tesseract's Midgardian keepers?" The nightmare had only increased his worry of Jane, and rampant paranoia that it had somehow been a vision plagued his mind.

Heimdall's face remained impassive. "Loki still shades Jane from my vision. Whether it be to mislead us, or have a true purpose, I cannot know."

Thor wasn't surprised that the Gatekeeper had seen straight through his question. He tried to refocus himself. He couldn't think selfishly, of only Jane. The people of Midgard needed him. "What of the Chitauri? What are Loki's plans?"

"He's planning on bringing them to Midgard using the Tesseract. I needn't tell you that the humans are not equipped enough to wage war against the Chitauri. This government protector, SHIELD, as they're called, have attempted to use the Tesseract to make weapons to defend themselves, but they are not ready. They've assembled a group of highly-skilled and gifted individuals to try to handle Loki. But they need you, my prince."

Thor had been afraid of that answer. "So there is no way to prevent Odin from needing to use the Gauntlet to send me there?" The aging king would kill himself trying to do it, and the possibility frightened Thor.

"I'm afraid not."

Thor didn't feel any better about the situation. With the certainty that the knowledge he'd garnered today was correct, he knew without a doubt that dark times were ahead for Midgard.


	4. Variant

On top of the world would aptly describe Jane Foster at present. She knew, knew without a doubt that her device would work. It was all drawn up in her notebook; where the power cells would carry the energy and radiation from the Tesseract to the amplifier, and she would have a nearly identical portal to the one that had been created beneath SHIELD, but much more stable and perfectly able to remain open for as long as Loki wanted it to be. She still needed a few things but she was so close she could almost taste her success. The thrill of new knowledge was exhilarating, one that she hadn't felt since the bizarre weather patterns, the subtle auroras in the New Mexico sky, that bizarre twister with Darcy and Eric and then... Thor.

The name jumps unbidden into her mind, almost obtrusive and obnoxious with its presence. Loki's spell makes radiation scans and energy calibrations seem more important by a hundredfold. But there he is again. Thor. A whirlwind of giant grins, cocky swagger, and unexpected chivalry. And his knee-buckling, sweat-inducing, all-consuming attractiveness with the blue eyes and the Patrick Swayze-Point Break blonde hair and the miles of golden skin sheathing rippling muscles and hell. Jane wanted to smack him in the too-goddamned-perfect face for taking her mind so far away from her work. Everything became fuzzy then, Thor's face and smile fading like a fogged window.

Focus on the iridium. The iridium. That thought promptly snapped Jane back to reality, where her lab assistants were working around her. She spotted Hawkeye on approach past the plastic-clad entryway to her temporary laboratory. "How fares the sea, Captain?" Jane asked in a strange, Hollywood-inspired squall of a pirate.

Hawkeye only smirked briefly at her, and she was proud of herself for getting that much of a reaction. Ignoring her question entirely, he held up a tablet with a close-up photo of the object of her desire (barring any thoughts, of course, of the roguish God of Thunder) and asked, "This the stuff you're looking for?"

Jane nodded vigorously, "Iridium. It's found in meteorites and such and is insanely hard to get your hands on." To see why exotic matter was required, in this instance, the iridium, one would have to consider an incoming light front traveling along geodesics, which then crosses the wormhole and re-expands on the other side. The expansion goes from negative to positive. As the wormhole neck is of finite size, one would not expect caustics to develop, at least within the vicinity of the neck. According to the optical Raychaudhuri's theorem, this requires a violation of the averaged null energy condition. Quantum effects such as the Casimir effect cannot violate the averaged null energy condition in any neighborhood of space with zero curvature, but calculations in semiclassical gravity suggest that quantum effects may be able to violate this condition in curved spacetime. God, Jane loved physics.

Jane shot a death glare at one of the lab techs who had casually stopped in their work to look at some of her notes, "Don't be looking that at that, you little punk!" She snatched it up like the world will burn up if she didn't, and slammed it against her chest with her arms crossed over it. The assistant, no more than a spindly kid, really, scurried off, terrified. Jane almost wondered how he got caught up in all of this. Almost.

"Still touchy about people stealing your work, I see," Hawkeye observed nonchalantly. She always wondered how he managed to sound so non-judgmental.

Despite her wondering, she still tossed a glare in Clint's direction, "Call me overprotective. Your pal Coulson made sure of that."

Hawkeye didn't say anything, as per his usual method. Besides, Loki was on approach. Jane hid her grimace at the visage of the tall, pale man, and turned back to her work station, only half listening to Hawkeye and Loki converse. She wanted her iridium, but this was Hawkeye's turf, not hers. She would leave infiltrating impenetrable fortresses up to the professionals.

"Our next target is in Stuttgart."

"What do you need?"

My freaking iridium, Jane thought sourly. Almost like a petulant child, she wanted it now. This shit was no longer theoretical.

She almost thought at the moment she could feel Loki's eyes burning a hole in her back, but she ignored them.

"A distraction. And an eyeball."

She'd sent her assistants away, and the only sounds surrounding her were irregular drips of water and the scratch of pencil on paper or the metallic ring of prodding the device. She'd long ago learned that she worked best by herself. Antisocial would describe her moderately well. In high school, she hadn't attended a single school dance, football game, or a party. She hadn't had a boyfriend until she was twenty-two. All she did was take AP classes and go to the colleges in the area to take physics courses. She's sure it was bizarre for the fourth year physics majors, some on their way to doctorates, taking classes with a gangly fifteen year old. She'd been called a prodigy more times than she'd cared to in her youth. That all changed when she had her doctorate before her twenty-fourth birthday and decided to research wormholes. Fascinating stuff, and respected in the right channels. The operative phrase being 'right channels.' Most of her research (if not all) had been disregarded before she'd published Foster's Theories on Wormholes. That's when the physics community started to not scoff at her. She knew that SHIELD probably wouldn't let her publish anything else. At least she'd done something before they swooped in. They're going to do everything they can to make sure this research never sees the light of day.

At least she no longer had to worry about SHIELD suppressing her discoveries.

Loki, Hawkeye and their little team had gone off a few hours earlier, and Jane was puzzling over her machine. Turning the theoretical into the physical was always much more challenging than it seemed. Loki's magic helped (extensively. Who would've thought that she could create her own wormhole in less than a week? No one. She could barely wait to see the looks on the faces of her fellow physicists.) but there was only so much she could do in the time of the day. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember when she'd last slept. Or eaten, for that matter.

All personal care aside, Jane knew that small discrepancies would change everything. Down to the hundredth, thousandth, millionth, billionth, trillionth had to be exact. She had the confidence of Loki, but old insecurities of the real Jane Foster were beginning to bleed through.

The device was nearing completion. The Tesseract was within the shining, mostly titanium and lead device, with the radiation amplifiers reaching for the ceiling like six-foot tall blades. She couldn't wait to see it in action, but the jiggle of nerves in her stomach was becoming harder to ignore. Focusing on the work, on the clarity of mind always made it easier to brush away.

She hoped to test, or at least, write out and think out (she had her tactics of how to approach a problem.) one of her strangest theories whilst she was by herself.

How, at the end of the equation, when every variable was solved and every constant canceled, x + x would equal zero. Fascinating, but completely against every single physics law she knew. Groundbreaking, highly theoretical, and so freakishly cool. Her territory exactly.

The energy of the cube plus the energy of the cube would equal zero. Loki's staff. In truth, an 'off switch' had not occurred to her until that very moment. Practicality would suggest that turning off the portal would be necessary at some point... So why not build in a feature? She did have a degree in engineering. May as well use it some more.

She would still need her iridium. There was no way to create a stable wormhole without it. Hence the giant collapse at the SHIELD base. Plus, leaving a wormhole open, really and truly open for an indefinite amount of time would lead to catastrophic consequences of epic proportions. Destroy the earth, burrow a massive beam of concentrated radiation energy down to the core of the planet and explode it. Destroy whatever realm Loki was wanting her to open. He'd given her coordinates, that's it. No names. She was surprised the thing hadn't torn a hole in the fabric of space and time the first time Loki crossed through it. Thank goodness. Playing with fire would lead to a burn.

She began to work on altering her design to accommodate a possible switch off. There probably would be no way to test if it would actually work, since she couldn't split the Cube in two, and the only other source would be Loki's staff, which had similar properties to the Tesseract, and there would be no prying that thing out of Loki's grasp.

So this would be a fly-by-night turn off. Hell if she knew if it would work or not. Ignoring the fact that in order for this to work the variables had to be exact. If it wasn't well, she'd be absolutely screwed. Maybe even the world would be screwed. Loki was gone, so she began to wonder about the repercussions of her actions. She was opening a freaking wormhole. And if she tried to close it an she wasn't correct... Damn. Shit could happen. A lot of shit.

While Jane normally would've questioned the morality of what she was doing as she grabbed a welder to disengage a few parts of her machine, the Jane who was under the influence of magic only thought, All in the name of science.


	5. Distortion

Loki wasn't impressed by many things on Midgard. The humans were a pathetically weak race, their only advantage being their brains, which predictably were almost always focused on power, and how to get more of it. It made them laughably easy to manipulate. The earth itself was falling apart at the seams, mostly due to the rash actions of the stupidest species.

But he could say he was damnably impressed by the music wafting through the pristine stone and marble corridors. Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 13 in A minor echoed beautifully in the structure, and for only the second time in his time on Midgard, Loki could admit that the humans had done something rather impressive. He almost paused to just listen, but refused to let himself do so.

Meanwhile, as Loki walked with a slow purpose towards the main room, security personnel were dropped one by one with silent arrows piercing the night. And then the time had come. With a ridiculously practiced swing, Loki knocked the maitre d' squarely in the face with the scepter, and chaos breaks loose. The once-king of Asgard allows a heartbeat of remorse as the quartet's strings fall silent, the achingly beautiful strains disappeared. At first, they were outraged, with gaping mouths and high-society cries of _Who on earth let him in? He is ruining a perfectly wonderful party!_

Quickly, their annoyance changed to fear, as Loki found the object of his efforts, and flipped him onto the horribly ostentatious marble oxen table. When he jammed the ocular pattern mimicry device into the victim's eye, and the anguished howls started, that's when they became terrified.

He enjoyed their fear, let it bathe him like cleansing fire and blood, and his subjects scrambled in their mad dash to get away. He knew Agent Barton was now inside the vault, and he left the man writhing in pain, blood pouring from his now useless eye socket and onto the oxen table. Fitting. The blood of man being spilled on the creature which man once sacrificed to their gods. Loki liked the sound of that. A god. Deity. _Perhaps not sacrifices_. He wasn't a barbarian after all. _No, I must think of something much better..._ The next phase of his plan was about to come to fruition, but why not have a little fun first?

He walked out of the building, and the air of Stuttgart was alive with fear. Oh, this would be far too easy. Calling upon his magic, Loki garbed himself in his ceremonial Asgardian armor, rich forest greens and gleaming golds, with the horned helmet coalescing out of nothingness. He strode out towards the awaiting flock, moving about like nervous little animals. He made sure to keep any futile little Midgardian peacekeepers from disrupting this taste of triumph. The police car flipped with a simple blast from the scepter, and Loki knew he wouldn't have to worry about them.

"Kneel before me," he said, standing at the helm of the crowd. They didn't pay him any mind, their panic clouding reason. Stupid mortals. "I said," he began, before creating several astral projections of himself and slamming the end of his staff to the ground. He grinned as the Midgardians shied away from the doppelgangers. " _KNEEL!_ " His voice carried over the crowd, and the satisfaction he felt as he watched them drop to their knees like hedge-born foot-lickers thrilled him to the toes. Pathetic didn't even begin to cover what these puny creatures were in his mind.

He began the slow journey of wading through his subjects. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity: that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel." He felt that delicious power again, and he let it overcome him, spread across his features like wind on sand. The ensuing smile was ruthlessly confident, coldly amused. He had never imagined this quest for power, for vengeance on his adoptive family would lead to such a wonderful sensation of control on such a ludicrous scale; he now did not wonder why his ancestors had once attempted to take the planet-

"Not to men like you."

Loki was drawn away from his introspect, and he sneered at the visage of the old man in his attempt to be defiant. Sagged eyes and a drooping frown could not know how exquisite his plan was, how exquisite this power was. Surely no human could comprehend it. "There are no men like me," he answered assuredly.

The old man's expression did not change. He only replied in knowing, "There are always men like you."

This small act was of no consequence, and the daring, feral grin didn't leave Loki's face. "Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example." With that, he let loose a blast of energy. The old man did not cringe as Loki had hoped he would. Just closed his eyes in acceptance.

And then the energy was flying back at him, and scored a direct hit to his midsection. Loki fell like a ragdoll from the concussion of the blast, as Captain Steve Rogers stood tall amongst the terrified civilians. "You know, the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." At the sight of Captain America, decked out with the red, white, and blue and the legendary shield of his, the once petrified party-goers were now slowly standing, alight with curiosity.

"This soldier," Loki chuckled, "a man out of time-"

"I'm not the one who's out of time," Steve said.

Over the Captain's shoulder, the quinjet hovered. A menacing gun dropped from the belly of the machine, and Natasha Romanoff's voice came over the PA system. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

Steve could only guess at what the madman was thinking as he sent a blast towards the jet. Looking at the blue energy, he was almost brought back to a time when it was just him and his team, with Bucky and Peggy and everything is simple because they just have to take down Hydra and Red Skull. Reality set in soon, and he chastised himself for letting his concentration slip. He feared for Agent Romanoff, because he remembered all too well how Hydra's weapons worked, but only for a moment before she easily dodged it. Not wasting Loki's moment of split concentration, the Captain hurled his shield at the would-be dictator.

Loki deflected the flying vibranium shield, but that didn't stop Steve as he retrieved it, and sent a scathing blow across Loki's vulnerable face. The Captain was surprised when Loki recovered as if he'd just been hit by a packet of tissue paper. He just barely parried a few of Loki's strikes before one of them hit home on his lower torso and sent him flying towards the concrete wall.

Never one to stay down for long, Rogers recovered, and spun the shield straight back at Loki. He knew by then that the shield wouldn't hit him, but it was enough of a distraction that he stood and charged. The shield skittered away, and Steve began throwing punches. Without his shield, Loki's scepter was a bigger concern than before, but he dodged each strike. He only managed to land a few blows before the fallen prince of Asgard knocked him down again.

The Captain scrambled onto his hands and knees, knowing he couldn't stay down for long. His motions were halted by the end of Loki's staff pressing into the back of his head.

"Kneel." The words were hissed, condescending to the highest degree.

Rogers gritted his teeth, and quick as a blink, swiped the staff from his head and he was back on his feet. "Not today," he replied, and with a grunt, leaps into a flying roundhouse kick, and felt satisfaction as he felt his foot connect with Loki's face, and the son of Laufey stumbled hard.

Natasha teeth becoming frustrated trying to get a clear shot at Loki. Cap was doing better than she anticipated (I mean, his opponent was a god) but the fighting pair were tossing each other around the area like they each weighed nothing. "Guy's all over the place," she said to herself.

It was then that she heard slight static over the PA system, and the beginning strums of ACDC's "Shoot to Thrill". She knew who it was before he even spoke.

"Agent Romanoff... you miss me?"

Steve was baffled by the music (was that considered music nowadays?) suddenly blasting from the quinjet, but he didn't let it distract him and he shoved Loki back with a punch. He heard the tell-tale hum of Iron Man's thrusters before a ball of white energy pummeled the Asgardian's chest and sent him sprawling.

Steve adjusted his position, and Tony Stark landed next to him. It was all the Captain could do to not gawk at the impressive collection of weaponry that appeared out of nowhere on Stark's suit. "Make a move, Reindeer Games."

Right before their eyes, Loki's armor melted away in a brilliant display of light. Hs hands were raised in a clear surrender. Steve narrowed his eyes slightly, but didn't comment.

"Good move," Tony commented.

"Mr. Stark."

And there he was. The man who so expertly ensnared his father's affections. He didn't let any tension creep into his voice as he greeted, "Captain."

* * *

 

The splintered crystal hummed beneath their feet, some sort of mystical energy flowing through it. Thor was gritting his teeth, Frigga's characteristic look of maternal concern was permanently writ on her face, Heimdall stood impassively as usual, and Odin was as unreadable as he always was. Thor got the distinct feeling that his father was keeping something from him, but when was Odin _not_ keeping something from him? Something that had bothered him in years past was now met with understanding, if a bit of exasperation. He knew Odin had his reasons.

The worry gnawed at his gut as the small herd of healers fluttered like worried pigeons behind the group. Thor tried his best to ignore them, deathly afraid of what the aftermath of his journey would hold for the Allfather.

Frigga pulled her son aside for a moment. Thor didn't say anything. He could tell when his mother had something on her mind. "My son, please be careful. I have foreseen many serpentine malefactions on Midgard." Frigga's powers of foresight were legendary, and Thor stiffened at her words.

"Can you tell me about these occurrences?"

Frigga shook her head sadly, "Unfortunately my visions have been lacking any form of specificity... Just be sure to have a care."

"I will, mother." He could tell she was holding something back. "What is it?"

"I worry of Loki."

"We all do," he replied stiffly.

Frigga swallowed heavily, "I know. But... whatever happens on Midgard, whatever trials you may face, whatever wrongs Loki has committed, do not forget that he was once your brother. He still is your brother, but he is lost. I recall a wise Midgardian who once proclaimed that not until we are completely lost do we begin to find our way back."

Thor focused more intently on Frigga. "Do you know something I do not?"

Her lips were pressed into a line, and answered a bit facetiously, "I know many things you do not, Thor." She paused before saying, "No matter his true heritage, he is family. Please bear that in mind with whatever lies on your path."

She then pulled her eldest son close and he responded in kind; with her arms wrapped around him, he could almost imagine that he was still a boy, that he and Loki were still the best of friends having adventures as all brothers do. _Where did we go so wrong?_

His mother brought him out of his reverie by saying, "And please understand that any of Odin's actions have been taken for the benefit of you, and Midgard as a whole. Please know this." Her voice was quiet, pleading in the maternal way that made Thor's heart weep.

Before he could further inquire, Odin's deep voice interrupted the train of thought. "We are ready to begin."

The Gauntlet was pulsing, the air around it warping and bending, and Thor felt nausea raising as he imagined what it would do to his father.

The onlookers stepped back at Odin's command. Thor faced the baffling black and purple of Asgard's end, his back facing the shining city, and the grim faces of those who would see him off. "I am sending you to Loki's exact location," came Odin's voice, "Bring both he and the Tesseract back to Asgard." Odin paused, and in a fatherly tone Thor rarely heard anymore from Odin, said, "Please be safe."

The Gauntlet was making ethereal sounds, buzzing and bending. Suddenly he felt the buzzing and bending his his ears, and then it began to ache and hurt, and then in buzzed into his head, and he almost brought his hands up to his temples to try to take the pain away, but he couldn't. He felt as if his hands were bound to his sides, and then the pain is everywhere and it felt like he was being shredded to pieces and put back together once again. He suddenly couldn't see anything, only masses of colors he had no names for swirling together in monstrous collisions that made everything hurt exponentially more.

He could no longer define where his body began or ended, and everything around him suffered in rippling pain.

And suddenly, it was all gone and he knew exactly where he was. The skies above Midgard. The air crackled with his presence, and Mjolnir hummed in response to the storm.

He saw a small Migardian flying machine beneath his current flight path, and knew immediately that Loki was within. He began the drop to the surface of the quinjet.

The quinjet's frame shook in the wake of an uproarious bout of thunder, and Steve didn't miss the note of nervousness that flickered across Loki's face. "What's the matter, scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki replied. He sounded expectant.

The quinjet suddenly shuddered violently, and it was very clear that it was not thunder this time. Tony flipped down this mask, and opened the loading dock. The storm raged violently outside, and strong drafts of cold wind burst through the jet, and rain rapidly struck the end of the dock ramp.

"What are you doing?" called Steve incredulously. Was he _trying_ to destabilize their flight?

Thor dropped into the jet, looking at home with the dark clouds and the lightning, and Tony was about to shoot him, but Mjolnir planted squarely in his chest threw him all the way to the front of the jet.

With a look of indescribable rage and sadness on his face, Thor set his eyes on Loki for the first time. His brother looked smug on the outside, but his eyes held none of the brotherly warmth that they once had. Now only contempt paired with hatred remained. He had been expecting this, but it almost caused Thor to stumble, that look in his brother's eyes.

He quickly found his anger again, doing his best to leave behind the sadness.

Clenching his jaw, he grasped his brother by the neck (not trying to hurt him, but tight enough for Loki to understand that he was beyond angry.) and with a few spins by Mjlonir, he flew from the confines of the jet.

* * *

 

The weather was calm again as Thor slammed his brother into the ground. Perhaps a touch harder than necessary. After all, Thor still did not know of Jane's fate. Loki could withstand a little tossing around. They were on a sharply steep cliff raising them to the deep blue sky of Midgardian nighttime. The singular moon shone brightly on the two men, and the constellations that Jane had once shown Thor watched as one stood over the other. A crisp-smelling coniferous forest framed them in all directions.

Loki let out a strained grunt and then a maddening chuckle, and Thor felt like he didn't even know this person who lay in front of him.

Thor wanted to take Mjolnir and smash that smile right off Loki's face. How desperately he wanted to ask about Jane. _Where is she?_ He wanted to scream it. He breathed in once, reminded himself that _this is his duty_ , to his people, to his family, to Midgard, and to all the rest of the realms. He could not beg for Jane's life and it burned him. Made him angry and hateful in ways that he felt shameful for even thinking.

"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor ground out. He couldn't keep the anger from his voice. He probably shouldn't even try. Loki knew him as well as anyone, and could see when Thor was angered by something.

His laughter increased briefly, "Ah, I missed you, too."

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" Thor growled, his passionate anger seeping into his features.

Loki was beginning to stand, if a bit shakily. "You should thank me," he strained, "With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here? Your precious Earth?" Thor didn't wince at the mention of the dark energy that most likely left their father completely convalescent, and ignored the fact that Loki was partially correct. He had been dogged about finding a way back to Midgard, but Odin likely would not have allowed his heir to use it. He was needed by his people.

Thor dropped Mjolnir with a resounding boom. He strode up to his brother, and with a pained look, "I thought you dead." Was his brother still in there, somewhere? He prayed that it would be so. He mourned the loss of his younger brother, one of his best friends. He missed him. Wanted him back.

He felt his hope deflate when Loki just smiled, and asked in a falsely sympathetic tone, "Did you mourn?"

"We all did!" How could Loki even begin to think they did not? Did he truly believe they cared so little for him? "Our father-"

For the first time, the smile left his face, and was replaced with something far more sinister. "Your father. Surely he told you my true parentage, did he not?"

He was horrified that his brother would think that Thor would think less of him since he was not of Asgardian blood. The god of thunder was mired in the thoughts of how he had failed his younger brother, of how he wronged Loki when he said, "We were raised together, we played together, we fought together! Do you remember none of that?"

Loki's face was serious, emotionless and said, "I remember a shadow. Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss, I who was and should be king!" His voice rose in crescendo towards the end.

"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?" Thor grew angrier and angrier as this conversation drew on. He didn't recognize this wolf in sheep's clothing who was claiming to be his brother, and couldn't read him like he always thought he could.

At this, a gleeful smile wet Loki's lips. "Only the world you love, Thor?"

The hot anger froze in an instant, his blood turning to ice in his veins. No. Not Jane. Not Jane... "What?"

Another psychotic laugh tore from Loki, "Oh, this is far too amusing. Did that old codger really tell you nothing?"

"Loki..." _He's lying. He must be. He always was an excellent bluffer. He's lying..._ Thor tried to internally convince himself that his love was safe.

"I'm sure you remember the lovely Jane Foster?" Thor was choking on air. _He's bluffing. He's lying._ "That exquisite mortal who had the misfortune of crossing paths with you? Yes, well, you may remember her, but I don't believe she remembers you." The last words were a taunt, malicious and there was such enjoyment in his eyes.

"What have you done with Jane?" He called Mjolnir to his hand, raising it high over his head.

Loki's only response was to laugh again, obviously unafraid. "Temper, temper, brother. It appears you've done an excellent job protecting her, as well as this realm. The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly fret about one woman. Who, by the way, is a marvelous lover. I can see why you are so taken with her."

Thor wretched. Physically wretched, knees shook like leaves, skin gone cold and clammy. He never felt such utter fear in his life. Fear that was soon eclipsed by such blinding anger he wanted to smite Loki where he stood. He could do it. End this nightmare with a simple action. He could almost see the vision of Loki, burning in a torch of white lightning. He wanted blood for what had been done to Jane. No amount of it would be enough. "Loki, tell me what you have done with Jane." _And I might let you live_ were the unspoken words. The rage still boiled.

Loki still remained aloof. "My, how the tables have turned. The people of this realm are of no real consequence, and the sooner you understand that, the better off you will be."

Thor absently wished he could just kill this man, this man who was no longer his brother, but... his duty. Duty precluded personal want. "You think yourself above them."

"Well, yes."

He was finished trying to find his brother. He said his next words with as much scorn as he could manage. "Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. The throne would suit you ill."

Loki showed only precious little annoyance at Thor's slight. "This coming from the prince who has bedded and fallen in love with a mortal from another realm."

"Leave Jane out of this," he said slowly, with as much diction and control as he could muster. He couldn't kill Loki. He needed the Tesseract. And Odin wanted both. He tried to breathe, tried to dissipate the fury in his gut.

"How much would it wound you to know that she does not love you?"

He felt the animosity lapping his insides like flames, and struggled to ignore the words and yelled, "Leave Jane out of this! You give up the Tesseract, you give up this pointless dream!" He softened despite his rage, yet again seeking his lost brother, ( _Is he still in there? Please Loki, please come back. I need you._ ) "You come home."

There was the maddening smile again. "I don't have it." With an angry roar, Thor separated himself from Loki with a shove. Loki couldn't keep his footing and was once again on the ground. Thor raised Mjolnir over his head, fully intending to wreak havoc on Loki's smug face, when the son of Laufey said, "You need the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off, I know not where."

He lowered Mjolnir, his emotions flaring like a waiting explosion. He stepped away from his brother, trying to process everything he had learned here. Loki scrambled quickly to his feet. A king did not wallow on the ground and he wished to observe Thor's emotional hurricane face-to-face. He was even more thrilled by Thor's response to the 'lover' comment than he had hoped. The artless lout couldn't even tell when Loki was bluffing. (Although, he supposed, he was the God of Mischief and Lies. He would be a pretty pathetic god if he could not lie convincingly...)

Thor's storming eyes were soon towering over his brother's, so caught up in his anger that he didn't hear the tell-tale whine of Iron Man's approach. "Listen well, brother-" _BAM_. In the blink of an eye, Thor was gone. Loki looked after to see the glow of Iron Man's thrusters disappearing into the pine forest beneath the cliff.

Loki waited for a moment more before saying for his own amusement, "I'm listening."


	6. Foreboding

Thor was bewildered for only a few moments until he got his bearings and his eyes focused on a man of red and gold metal, who then proceeded to throw the incensed God of Thunder into the ground with a great, loud smash. Clots of dirt were thrown up around him and he grunted at the impact. The landing was inelegant, but Thor hung onto Mjolnir and eventually rolled himself until he was standing.

It did not take a genius to see that Thor was angry. "Do not touch me again." With his formal battle armor, long hair framing a barely-calmed face, and the humming Mjolnir, he made quite the picture.

"Then don't take my stuff," the Metal Man said breezily after flipping up his face visor, seemingly unintimidated by the Asgardian's powerful presence.

The God of Thunder scowled, feeling the anger and carefully-built control colliding within himself. "You have no idea what you are dealing with."

"Ah, Shakespere in the Park?" Thor disguised his confusion, but the Iron Man continued, "Doth mother know that you weareth her drapes?"

Thor scowled when he realized this man of metal was being jocular. How could he jest at a time such as this? "This is beyond you Metal Man," Thor growled, and the vibrations of far-off thunder rattled in Tony's chest. "Loki will face Asgardian justice."

Suddenly not jocular at all, Tony said, in the picture of seriousness, "He gives up the cube, he's all yours. 'Til then," he suggested gravely while replacing his mask, "stay out of the way."

The war control raged against anger inside him suddenly shifted, and his sight went red and his vision became tunneled, only focused on the brash, cocky Metal Man. Was that the only thing the humans cared about? The damned Tesseract? What of Jane? If Loki's words were true, did they care naught for her safe return?

Did humans truly have no loyalty to their own people? He discarded that thought as soon as it came. They were an honorable race. He was sure there were the aberrations among them, as there was with any people, but when it came down to it, Jane's humans were good. They deserved more than his own cocky judgements.

However, if what he had learned of the Chitauri, of this mystical Thanos, was true, he did not know how Midgard could expect a victory. They underestimated Loki. If this brash Metal Man was the gleaming example of what stood between Midgard and the abyss... he feared the consequences of such overconfidence. His fear, regret, fear, anger, and fear all exploded inside of him in a whirl of energy and raw, unrestrained power.

Without hesitation, Thor sent his hammer flying into the glowing center of the Metal Man's chest. He immediately regretted the action, but couldn't quite bring himself to feel remorseful just yet. He was drunk on his rage. His opponent flew with Mjolnir, smashing through a massive tree. Thor was upon the Iron Warrior before the splinters even fell to the ground.

Careful to not harm the Midgardian with the impressive armor, Thor placed his knee on the Metal Man's chest, just below the glow that Thor had a rising suspicion had to do with keeping him alive. Useful knowledge if he planned on killing the assailant, which he had less than no intention of doing. Once, he had rejoiced in killing... until he was nearly killed himself.

"What do you know of Loki's prisoners?" he barked. His voice was coarse and demanding. The voice of an army general, it brooked no room for argument.

Tony wouldn't admit it, but _goddamn_. It hurts to have your chest nearly pulverized by some sort of magical hammer and subsequently knelt on by a Norse god. What he knew was limited, but Pepper's forcing him to do his 'homework' had paid dividends in way of information. All he knew was that Thor was the brother of Loki and that he had a vested interest in the good of the planet in the form of a woman named Jane Foster, who Tony had indeed heard of before.

He could be honest and spill the beans right then and there, but that just wouldn't be Tony. He could tell information might be the only thing he could hold over over Thor. Who was a god, by the way. And was still. Kneeling. On. His. Chest. Never let it be said Tony does not use his advantage. Or, more accurately, uses the advantage and is blunt as hell about it. "The ones he commandeered with the glowing stick of destiny? As good as dead."

 _That_ got a reaction. Maybe not the best idea to intentionally provoke a being that was possibly several thousand times stronger then himself. Rage and fear blazed in his blue eyes, and one of his massive hands went around Tony's armored neck. He hoped that the suit was strong enough to survive his seriously tight grip. He thought he heard the metal alloy whine slightly under the pressure as Thor said, "Why do you say such things? Are the Midgardians not giving their full efforts to rescue those taken?" His tone was a combination of uncertainty and anger.

Thor was still entirely unsure about whether Jane was in Loki's control or not. Loki was an excellent liar, and Thor wanted so desperately for his brother's claims to be nothing but a manipulation. This Metal Man must have the answers.

"Where is Jane Foster?" he demanded, not giving the man in his grip a chance to answer.

The gold and red mask with the glowing slits for eyes betrayed nothing as he said, "That pretty little astrophysicist? Probably Loki's sex slave by now."

The rest of Thor's carefully built control disintegrated in an instant. With his godly strength, the force that seemed so casual, he threw Iron Man through yet another tree and then called Mjolnir to his hand.

The Iron Warrior recovered quickly, and Thor grinned maliciously and called his greatest weapon down to his hammer. The lightning hummed with power around him, wrapping him in a static veil of the uncontrolled strength answering only to him, and then he hurled it towards the Iron Warrior.

He smirked in bloodlust until he realized his opponent was absolutely and completely unaffected by one of his most vicious attacks that many armies had fallen to. Not only did the lightning do no damage, but it actually benefitted Metal Man, and Thor did not realize there was a super-powered blast coming at him until it connected and he was thrown backwards by the force of it. He recovered in time to see the metallic boots of Iron Man coming straight at him, and now it was Thor's turn to knock down a perfectly innocent tree, losing his grasp on Mjolnir as he did so.

Thor didn't let the dazedness last for very long, and immediately went at Iron Man again.

The two were locked in an intense bout of hand-to-hand, in which Thor had a clear advantage in as he grabbed ahold of one of the forearms of Iron Man and began to literally crush it in his grasp. The only thing that saved Tony's forearm from being reduced to powder was a last-resort repulsor blast from his hand, which nailed the god in the face. He stumbled backwards, surprised by the burn of pain from the Midgardian weapon.

The Metal Man was a much more formidable warrior than Thor had initially given him credit for, and called his hammer to his hand after regaining his bearings.

Both men raised their respective weapons, ready to begin anew their offenses when a spinning red, white, and blue disc first ricocheted from Iron Man's raised hand and then subsequently off Mjolnir, and snapped them from their battle hazes. "Hey!" came a sharply called demand from their left. Thor still felt like he wanted to kill something, but his attention was now drawn away from his opponent.

Thor looked quickly in the direction from which the spinning circle had come. When it returned to the hands of its owner, Thor realized it was a shield, and was immediately impressed with the control its wielder exhibited over it.

"That's enough," the new man ordered, and Thor immediately recognized his posture, his voice, everything about him marked him as a leader, and prepared himself for another fight. He did not know if this man would attempt the same thing the Metal Man had.

He then faintly recognized the man who leapt from his perch and fell gracefully to the forest floor as the one who Loki fought in Stuttgart, the encounter which Heimdall had briefly recounted before he made the horrendous journey to Midgard. He let his guard down only minutely.

"Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here-" he began, but Thor didn't let him finish.

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes." And save Jane, but he couldn't say that.

"Then prove it. Put the hammer down," the Captain suggested calmly.

Thor almost considered heeding his words, but then there was the voice of Metal Man again, "Uh, yeah, no, bad call. He loves his-"

Thor didn't let him finish.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" roared the God of Thunder, too caught up in his anger to question what he was doing. He leapt at the Midgardian.

Captain America knelt to the ground and raised his shield, made of the strongest metal on the planet, just moments before Mjolnir, forged in the heart of a dying star, ferociously smashed into the surface.

If the impact from throwing Thor to the ground had been loud, then the sound emitted when the two opposing forces collided was earth-shattering. Literally.

The sound wave rippled outwards, and even the thickest of the trees did not stand in its way. Wood and earth flew into the air, coloring the wind in greens and browns. The very cliffs surrounding them swayed and buckled, but did not crumble. The three figures at the epicenter of the event were not unharmed either.

Thor couldn't comprehend what had just happened as he went soaring backwards with the splinters of lumber and soil. The Asgardian had lived many years, and he had seen many battles. Battles with the fiercest of armies of all the Nine Realms, with weaponry and artillery so savage it should have never been created. And in all those battles, Thor had never come across a single being or object to ever resist his hammer. Fierce warlords, deadly assassins, the very branches of Yggdrasil feared him because of Mjolnir's wrath.

Yet this Midgardian had repelled him, resisted the hammer of Thor. The humans were often touted as the weakest race as they were the youngest and even had yet to discover the skies far beyond their own. The irony was not lost on Thor as the supposed 'weakest race' was the first to ever stand against the God of Thunder and Mjolnir.

He could only look upon the blue, red, and white man with a grudging respect. Not all Midgardians were so fragile, it would seem, as the arm behind the shield had not given in as he defended himself.

The man whose shield repelled his hammer, who would soon become a legend in each and every realm's lore as the first man who had done so, stood and placed himself between Thor and the Metal Man.

His anger simmered and then died in the middle of the chaos he had caused, immediately followed by a keen sense of shame. He shouldn't have let his emotion get the best of him. In battle, sometimes it was better to lose yourself in anger and bloodlust, but he had grown quite a bit where keeping his infamous rage under control was concerned. Although, it seemed that the newly-garnered patience faded in the wake of Jane being in danger. Or his then-brother's unexpected and violent return to the land of the living. Thor wasn't really sure which it was.

"Are we done here?"

Thor knew he could give this man, this Captain, his respect. He began to feel awful for attacking him when he was just trying to defuse the situation that had grown so volatile between himself and the Iron Warrior, and he had repaid him by trying to smash his skull in with Mjolnir.

He still had much to learn.

Despite his regret over attacking the Captain, he found himself wishing he had hit Iron Man much, _much_ harder.

* * *

After some smooth talking and convincing that they were indeed on the same side by Captain America and the newly introduced Agent Natasha Romanoff who carried with her a subtly dangerous aura (Thor could sense the warrior's spirit within her. If the occasion ever arose, he suspected she would get along very well with Lady Sif), Thor calmed significantly.

With his doubts assuaged for the time being, he removed his formal armor, the lightning commanded by Mjolnir encasing him, and when he emerged, the chainmail from his arms was gone, as was the long red cape. In its place was a different chest plate, crafted of heavy leather with metal adornments, and scarlet bracers that showed his cape was never truly gone. He then followed the Midgardians onto the flying craft. With a cackling Loki in tow, Thor knew his brother's schemes were only just beginning, and had been somewhat reluctant to remove his armor. But he decided to place his trust in his new allies, that they could control his brother as well as he.

Loki remained unresponsive for the duration of the flight. Thor made weak attempts at drawing words from Loki, but realized his efforts would be unfruitful. Everyone generally ignored the restrained, mischievous god with the smirk on his face after that.

The human's floating fortress was rather impressive. He was shocked when he saw the massive ship coalesce in the sky, and was surprised and convinced the Midgardians had rediscovered magic. That was until Agent Romanoff had informed him that it was merely reflective mirrors that would bend light from the angle of incidence and from there onwards she lost him in the scientific jargon that had sounded similar to what Jane would spout when she worked on something, which he had only seen briefly in his time on Midgard, but it stuck out in his memory. Perhaps because when her eyes were alight with knowledge and discovery it made her shine from within.

Dear Odin, he missed her.

Once they boarded the vessel, Loki was taken away by armed escort, and Thor took a deep breath and let him go. Trust them. Loki was still silent and Thor had an uneasy feeling that he was simply biding his time.

As his brother disappeared down the corridor, Thor was pleasantly surprised by the presence of a friend. Finally, something good. "Son of Coul!" greeted Thor uproariously. "It pleases me to see you well, my friend!" and then the thunder god promptly threw the much shorter man into a bear hug.

Phil was obviously caught off guard (they'd only known each other for maybe a few hours last time he was on earth, and yet Thor considered him a friend?), but relaxed and just went with it. "You too, Thor."

He heard Stark whisper a joke about how he didn't get such a warm greeting to Agent Romanoff, to which she just glared. Thor elected to ignore it, as Tony obviously hadn't taken into account Asgardian superior hearing.

Agent Romanoff led Thor and Steve to the bridge, while Agent Coulson led Tony Stark away for a 'debriefing'. Upon their entrance into the command center of the Helicarrier, Thor was introduced to a menacing-looking Midgardian man by the name of Nick Fury. The director of SHIELD had an immediately noticeable eyepatch over one eye, and Thor assumed the man had lost it in a battle much like his father had. After their quick greeting, Fury stated he would be dropping by for a housewarming party with the imprisoned Loki. Thor knew not exactly what he meant, but he knew better than to constantly ask questions.

He was then introduced to a kindly looking man with dark hair and dark eyes named Bruce Banner. Thor was informed of his particular 'condition' and was fascinated and had heard some of the more intriguing details of this raging, green 'Hulk', but held off his questions for the time being. He could see a deep unease in the man, a discomfort with being surrounded by so much activity. He wished he could enquire as to why Banner seemed this way, but was able to quickly deduce doing so would be of rather poor taste. Besides, he could see on the various screens about the bridge that Loki had been safely delivered to the hands of the Midgardian prison.

The flurry of activity fell silent as Loki and Nick Fury began to exchange words. Thor took his place away from the table, eyes focused on nothing but his ears keenly aware of his brother, where Agent Romanoff and the good Captain took their places. Banner stood behind them, his attentions also on the fallen Asgardian prince.

Thor listened as Nick Fury described the prison to its occupant, and Loki's jest at how it was not built for him.

"Built for something a lot _stronger_ than you," Fury replied assuredly.

Thor didn't have to see him to here the mischievous smirk in his brother's voice. "Oh, I've heard." There was a pause before Loki spoke again. "The mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I?" Nick Fury began, "You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill because it's fun." His voice lowered slightly, "You have made me _very_ desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

Loki made a taunting 'ooh' sound before saying, "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power. _Unlimited_ power." Loki's voice loses all its aloof potency and becomes very grounded in edged certainty. "And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is," he finished, with something that sounded a lot like a growl.

"Well let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," Fury said before Lady Natasha cut the feed.

It was Banner who spoke first. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?"

Captain America, who just seemed to naturally herald the leadership position, voiced his own thoughts a moment later. "Loki's going to drag this out, so... Thor, what's his play?"

He breathed slowly once. All he has to do was relay information. Simple. "He has an army called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people, and they will win him the Earth. In exchange, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army. From outer space." The Captain sounded... disbelieving.

"He's building another portal," Banner realized, "That's what he needs Foster for."

And just when he was managing to keep himself professional in dire straits, his innards felt as if they'd been sucked out of his feet. "Foster?" _No. No. No..._ "As in Jane Foster?"

"Yeah," Banner seemed surprised that he knew that, "She's an astrophysicist-"

"I know very well who she is," Thor interrupted roughly. "What do you know of Jane Foster?" he asked in his most commanding tone. "Has Loki taken her?" Their small group gathered on the bridge seemed taken aback by his sudden vehemence.

Despite his focus being on Banner who had shown that he had knowledge of Jane's status, it was Agent Romanoff who answered. "Loki has her under some kind of spell." There was a minute shift in her delivery when she added, "Along with one of ours."

No. This couldn't be happening. Thor hadn't felt so alone and terrified since Mjolnir refused to recognize him. He had been broken, and it had only been by the grace of Jane, Darcy, and Erik Selvig that he was not set adrift in a world he did not know. And it was Jane who made sure he was securely tethered to the ground beneath his feet, and for the first time since he had been banished he felt as though he might belong somewhere. That he could learn to call someplace his home. That he did not have to be a king, a prince, or even a god to be happy.

While to everyone in the room it seemed like Thor had simply accepted her answer, they continued to discuss their current prisoner.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Steve wondered.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can _smell_ the crazy on him," Banner said.

Thor was snapped out of his daze by that comment, and slammed his open palm down onto the table. "Have care how you speak!" He belatedly realized he had crushed the portion of the table beneath his palm, despite not having put that much force behind it, and there was now a Thor-sized-hand print in its otherwise pristine surface. He pulled his arm back, embarrassed by his display. "My apologies," he said to no one in particular. He had to stop letting his emotions get the best of him. Much more reasonably toned, Thor said, "Loki may be beyond reason, but he is my brother." No one seemed particularly affected by his outburst, for which he was grateful.

"He's killed eighty people in two days." Lady Natasha's voice was not putting emphasis on any of her words, but there was an underscore of resentment in her tone.

He felt the need to apologize for Loki once more, but moreover began to feel such guilt. "It truly pains me to see the damage he has done to your realm, but I will not have him treated like a soulless miscreant." Because, he knew, if anyone was to blame it was himself.

His unwavering loyalty to his brother confused his new comrades, that much he could tell.

It was at that time Banner decided to take the now-awkward pressure off of the Thunder God and began asking questions about why they needed the iridium which Loki had orchestrated the theft of in Stuttgart.

"It's a stabilizing agent," came a new voice, and Thor turned to see a man whom he did not recognize with Coulson until he looked at the man's face. The Metal Man had arrived. He muttered a few things to the Son of Coul about flying out to somewhere called Portland and keeping love alive and then turned back to the whole of the group and said, "Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD."

He almost felt like he should apologize to the Metal Man. He must have hurt him, but this Tony Stark acted as if he was above everyone and everything. The callous way he spoke of Jane in the forest left him reluctant to have anything to do with the man who now called him Point Break and said he had a mean swing. Whatever any of those things meant. The Metal Man did say there was no hard feelings, so perhaps an apology was unnecessary.

Stark continued to strut around the bridge like he was Nick Fury himself. "Also, means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." Calling out over the small sea of agents, Tony began giving antiquated orders, "Uh, raise this mast, ship the topsails." Most of the agents below stopped in confusion, the din dying slightly before the unarmored Metal Man observed, "That man is playing Galaga. Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." The agents began to return to their work as they realized nothing worthwhile was being said. He did some experimental covering of one eye. "How does Fury even see these?" he asked, referring to the screens before him, of a dark haired agent Thor had been introduced to as Maria Hill.

"He turns."

"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to," he finally turned back around, "kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked drily.

"Last night," Tony informed matter-of-factly. "The packet. Foster's notes. Her extraction theory papers? " He seemed put out by the fact that no one was nodding and saying 'Yes, Tony! You are exactly correct!' He asked plaintively, "Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Would Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Rogers asked.

It's around that time when Thor lost the ability to pay incredibly close attention to what Banner and Stark were saying back and forth to each other. He was glad to see that he was not alone as Captain Rogers looked equally lost.

Nick Fury reentered the room soon afterwards, emphasizing the fact that Dr. Banner was only here to track the Tesseract.

The Captain apparently recognized the staff Loki wielded as a relative of weapons he had seen in the past. Something called Hydra.

Nick Fury had begun to speak again, but Thor only really and truly registered the last piece of information. "I want to know how Loki managed to turn two of the sharpest people I know into his own personal flying monkeys."

This statement confused Thor, and decided to finally convey his utter confusion. "Monkeys? I don't understand."

"I do," said Rogers, sounding quite pleased for once. "I understood that reference."

It was then that the Son of Coul helpfully leaned over to the bamboozled Thunder God and quietly explained that the expression meant Loki had Jane and this Agent Barton at his beck and call like unwilling slaves.

He almost wished he hadn't learned the definition.

Bruce and Tony eventually walked off, babbling like excited children about scientific concepts Thor couldn't even begin to try to understand. He smiled wistfully when he realized Jane would fit right in them.

With their meeting complete, Thor just began to walk with no actual plan of where he was going. All he knew was that he needed to be alone, and to absorb everything that he had just learned.

* * *

 The service deck of the Helicarrier was abuzz with life, but Thor managed to find a secluded area away from the activity. It was next to a quiet generator of some sort, and he leaned his back against the gentle hum, and just slid down. Let every single emotion crash over him like subsequent tidal waves. He felt like he was tossed and crushed by pounding water as he placed his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands.

He felt completely and utterly alone. Loki's words from the cliff and his prison reverberated inside his head, mocking him, laughing at him. He had found some solace on the cliff, thinking that perhaps Loki was bluffing.

Now, it was his fears incarnate. Nick Fury and Lady Natasha had confirmed it.

No matter what Loki might taunt him with, he tried to refuse to accept the possibility that his Jane might be dead. If he welcomed such a statement into his heart as a fact, he would surely lose all hope.

Midgard needed him. They needed the God of Thunder, the warrior, the hero. Not Thor the man, suddenly a creature of emotion and conflict. He despised weakness of any sort. And at that moment, Thor felt profoundly weak. It was a feeling he hasn't experienced much of before his time on Earth. Fear and helplessness. It was maddening.

Jane was constantly on his mind. His worry for Jane, despite his duty, was paramount to that of Loki and the Tesseract. Every scenario that played itself out in his mind's eye ended badly. Loki using Jane for whatever he wished. Using her against him. Everything that would ultimately lead to Jane's death. _She is doomed, Thor._

His hope was dwindling.

He raised his head at the sound of approaching footsteps and to his utter surprise, there stood the Son of Coul. He approached the near-despondent Thor, and sat down next to him. "How are you doing?" he asked quietly.

Thor clenched his jaw, and answered the way he was supposed to. "I stand ready to defend Midgard."

Phil scoffed exasperatedly, the clever tactic for dodging the question not at all unfamiliar to him. "No, I asked how _you_ are doing. Not what your duty dictates."

"I..." Thor wasn't sure how to respond. He swallowed as he tried to think of an appropriate reply. All of his education as a prince, as a future diplomat who had to think on his feet, seemed to fly out the window.

Coulson began again since he didn't want to wait for Thor to come up with another diplomatic response. "Since I know what you want to say, but you won't say it because of whatever you are feeling is a problem." He turned and looked Thor squarely in the eye, "We are going everything we can to ensure that Jane is delivered from Loki's custody unharmed."

Thor swallowed thickly, more grateful to the Son of Coul than he could ever comprehend. The words, short and to-the-point, re-established whatever remains of his hope were left. He still felt scattered and afraid, but suddenly it did not seem he was fighting for a hopeless cause. Agent Phillip Coulson was obviously a good man. A good man who was offering an olive branch to the self-secluded god. He was candid, and deserved nothing less than candor in return. "I am afraid."

"For Jane?"

He nodded pensively, "Aye, but not just for her. I knew my brother to be a good man once."

Coulson stiffened slightly beside him, but said nothing; Thor did not hold it against him. If an unknown enemy had entered Asgard and began slaughtering his people in droves, he would be feeling much more than simple animosity towards them. And here he was, in the same situation and trying to empathize with the mass-murderer of humans. He could understand Phil's discomfort.

"I am truly sorry if my words bring you distress, but you must understand. I grew up with a man who I knew to be my brother. He was one of my best friends, my closest confidant. It has truly shaken me to know that he has harbored such hatred for me his entire life. I do not know when his grudge began, and I feel ill to consider when truth became lies, when Loki pulled away from me and I didn't even realize. It makes me wonder about every action I have taken, every small thing that I have said that may have ultimately chipped away at Loki until there was nothing left. I find myself asking, 'Did I push him here?' My answer every time is yes. My arrogance and stupidity drove a wedge between us, and I was too absorbed by myself to even notice it." Thor's speech ended with his normally great voice becoming small and weak.

Phil was silent a beat, and answered, "It takes a good man to see his mistakes. It takes a better man to try to do better. No matter what mistakes you have made in the past, no matter if they are your fault or not, you are here now trying to correct them.

"And I don't think that the man I see in front of me is the same one who so boldly tried to break into our facility to claim what was once his," Phil finished wryly, the memory of that rainy night in the desert when he watched a mortal Thor take down his entire security force now a fond one.

Thor smiled weakly. He felt like a shattered man, but the Son of Coul had begun the arduous process of putting him back together again when Jane wasn't there to do it. "Thank you. Your wisdom humbles me. I can only hope to be the man this realm needs me to be."

Phil did not respond straight away. Instead, he pulled out a small device with a glass screen that filled Coulson's hand. It looked delicate, and Thor could barely follow Phil's fingers as the flew across the smooth surface. His breath caught in his throat when he saw a picture of Jane appear. The first time he has laid eyes upon her in what seemed like forever. She was smiling, light brown locks worn loose around her face and dark eyes brilliant. She looked as beautiful as ever, but her bright presence was dulled by the Midgardian device. Despite this, her visage was like a breath of fresh air.

There were many changing numbers, and waving lines next to her picture, and he was about to ask what they meant, but Coulson beat him to it. "We give all SHIELD employees biometric monitoring devices. It means we can monitor their health at all times," he explained to Thor's confused look. "According to the device in Ms. Foster, she is alive and healthy. There are no physical signs of distress that we can pick up, although it has been roughly three days since she last slept or ate anything." Phil reconsidered his earlier statement, "So perhaps she isn't in perfect health, but her life is not currently in danger."

Thor sighed in relief, much tension released from his body. Not all of it left. His situation was as far from a ideal as he could get. But thanks to his good friend, he no longer felt hopeless, and the two sat in a comfortable silence, underscored by the soft whine of the generator.

* * *

 

Hawkeye was gathering his crew to infiltrate the Helicarrier when he heard Loki's voice in his head. A simple command, but as soon as it was planted in his mind, he had no choice but to obey.

_Bring Foster._

Now, Barton was a superb agent, but the command to bring a civilian as a tag-along would normally have set him on edge. But now was obviously not a normal time as his eyes bled pale blue.

The time to free Loki drew near.


	7. Crescendo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to omit the argument from the laboratory, as I was not making any significant changes.   
> Also, this chapter speeds a bit. Fasten your seatbelts.

"As soon as the Tesseract was stolen, we were sure to move Erik Selvig and Darcy Lewis. We assumed Loki would come after people close to you, so they are in lockdown in a SHIELD safehouse in Norway. They will be safe."

Thor was once again overwhelmed with his gratitude of the Son of Coul. "Thank you. You were not incorrect about Loki's wish to take those with whom I have a close connection. I know for certain it was no accident, Loki taking Jane." He swallowed heavily. "I fear what he plans for her when he is done." Horrendously violent images tumbled heedlessly through his mind before Agent Coulson's words distracted him for his inward hell.

"She talks about you a lot. You changed her life, you know? You changed everything around here."

"They..." He briefly entertained the idea of not having crashed to Earth, of not having brought such pain and destruction to Jane's world. It was an option that made him blanch at the thought of never meeting the people who changed his life, but there was the draw of leaving the beautiful planet, of leaving Jane and his Midgard friends far out of harms way. "They were better as they were," he managed bleakly. "In Asgard, we think ourselves more advanced, that the Aesir are the highest of beings, yet we come here, battling like bilgesnipe."

"Like what?"

"Bilgesnipe. Huge, scaly, big antlers. You don't have those?"

"Don't think so."

"Well, they are repulsive, and they destroy everything in their path."

He moved to look out across the great white clouds of Midgard, their white surfaces darkened by the nighttime. His arms crossed over his chest, like trying to ward off a chill that had come over him. "When I first came to Earth," he began, hearing the Son of Coul approach him from behind, "Loki's rage followed me here," _frightened people, angry citizens who didn't know why they had to leave, the bright eyes of the children, so scared, so trusting as he picked them up, like he could protect them from all evil, the Destroyer, explosions, death, the pain_ "and your people paid the price. And now again," His voice shook imperceptibly. His fingers tightened around his arms. "In my youth I courted war."

So wrapped up he was in his introspect, Thor did not hear the approach of Nick Fury. "War hasn't started yet," the confident Midgardian in black stated. Thor turned from the window to face SHIELD's leader.

"A fact I am deeply grateful for," Thor said, although he did not know how long the peace could last with Loki's scheming.

"Do you think you could make Loki tell us where the Tessertact is?"

"Loki's mind is far afield." A fact he cursed more and more each day. "It's not just power he craves, it's vengeance. Upon me." You changed her life. He could only pray she wouldn't regret him. "No amount of pain could rend a truthful answer from him."

"A lot of guys think that until the pain starts," Fury said. The chilling part was that it sounded like he knew from experience.

"What are you asking me to do?" Thor asked, bristling slightly. His words before about pain hadn't been intended to be interpreted as an invitation to torture his brother. He ground his teeth together before he said something he regretted.

"I'm asking you what are you prepared to do."

Now, Thor was a warrior. He was well-versed in the way of using pain to gain answers when he required them. But this... his own brother? He had planned on answering diplomatically, saying he, as a Prince of Asgard, could not possibly torture Loki, who was still considered a citizen of Asgard. Instead, this is what came forth: "How dare you insinuate that I should torture my own brother! Is the human race so vile as to assume I could do such a thing to my own kin? In all the nine realms I have never-" Thor stopped hearing the words that spewed from his mouth in his rage at this Nick Fury. What kind of man could ask such favors?

He snapped his mouth closed when the Son of Coul put a hand on his shoulder, drawing him backwards a step. This shook Thor out of the angry haze he had been in, and he felt drawn back into himself. Nick Fury hadn't reacted to the tirade, face blank as if he were listening and absorbing the spiked words Thor hurled his way.

"I apologize for my inappropriate behavior." Summoning all of his princely training, "I must decline your request." There. He said it.

"Director," a new voice inserted, "I would be more than willing to interrogate him myself without the need for violence."

Thor's eyes were drawn to the Lady Natasha. The shock of violent red hair haloed a beautiful face even the Light Elven women would be envious of, but Thor could see a darkness within her that belied her outer beauty. She was capable of dark and sinister things.

"Agent Romanoff, are you sure that would be wise?" Fury asked.

Her eyes sharpened to fierce points, that veiled darkness making itself known, "With all due respect, there's nothing I cannot handle. Sir." Her pose was defiant, confident, and the Thunder God could see she held no fear in her stance.

Thor felt his lips curl unwillingly into a smile at her stubborn personality. Yes, he knew he would like Natasha.

Fury breathed out once, "I need the Council's permission to allow you to interrogate him. Agent Coulson, with me," he ordered curtly. Without waiting for a response, because that's just how Nick Fury was, he turned on his heel and headed for the Council conference room with Agent Coulson following behind.

Agent Romanoff approached him. She was much like Son of Coul in that she did not treat him like an outsider, or something to be gawked at or shied away from.

"You will forever have my gratitude, my lady," he said honestly. "I fear my words to Fury were said in anger, but I cannot deny that the sentiment remains."

Her expression didn't change as she said, "Don't worry about it. Fury can be a bastard when it suits him."

He took her understanding gratefully. A silence descended, but didn't last long. "I must warn you, Lady Natasha, that my brother is a master manipulator."

Her lips began to tug into something that was the semblance of a smile, but her expression was one that looked like longing and pain mixed together. "He's not going to be the only one."

* * *

 

Jane would have felt out of place if her true emotions weren't held in paralysis by her current situation-sitting in the rear of a procured SHIELD quinjet, surrounded by men with menacing black attire covering them head to toe, with various assault weapons in their hands.

Jane could see out the front window they were approaching the Helicarrier. She had been on the behemoth of engineering only a handful of times during her employment by SHIELD, and could never quite believe it when the massive airship lifted off the ocean surface. Jane was a physicist and she could calculate the massive energy that would have to expend in order to break all those hydrogen bonds. The number (by her very accurate estimates) was hideously colossal. That wasn't even taking into account the reflection panels that made her actually gasp in awe the first time she saw them in action. What, she was a scientist and they were basically cheating the laws of physics. Once she thought through it, though, it wasn't too strange. Light doesn't operate under any absolute set of rules, and all you would have to some is finagle with bending the light rays.

Still insanely cool.

But now was not a time when Jane marveled at SHIELD's base of operations.

Hawkeye did that cool move that snapped his bow open, his high-tech quiver strapped to his back.

Jane wanted to ask how he planned on neutering a megaton Helicarrier with a single arrow. She didn't; not that he would have answered.

The tertiary sensor that was keyed to Loki's scepter indicated it was time to move in.

The rear door to the craft slid open, the master archer striding for the open mouth without fear. Wind bit into the cabin, but it didn't deter Agent Barton as he stopped just inches shy of a thirty thousand foot drop.

One thing that hadn't changed with Loki's presence in their minds was the look in his eye while he lined up a shot. They darted around for a bare moment, probably estimating wind speeds or whatever he did to make his arrows hit their marks every single time. Then they became so singly focused it never failed to send chills down Jane's arms.

He drew an arrow, and she noticed the custom-crafted head was styled differently than your average arrowhead. Then he fired, Jane's eyes tracking the black shaft until it disappeared behind the massive lift fan.

Jane kept watching the fan, waiting for something to happen. She noticed the barest of movements from one of Hawkeye's fingers, and that's when she heard the massive explosion, saw a plume of red and orange flame light up the engine. The carrier shuddered in the air, dipping only minutely before the other engines upped their rotations to keep the base afloat.

The much smaller craft landed rather gracelessly on the upper runway, with a hard jolt that nearly sent Jane to her knees. She kept her wits about her though, and followed suit with the rest of their crew off the quinjet, despite how out of place she looked in her signature flannel and jeans in the sea of sleek, black soldiers.

Next thing she knew, she was being scooped up by Hawkeye, despite his bow, and sliding down a ventilation shaft in his tight grip. He barked out orders to his men as he set her on her feet, and Jane's ears trained on the echoing sound of a great roar that didn't sound at all human or animal.

"Loki wants you," Clint added, tone emotionless and robotic as he began the trek down this particular service catwalk with a few men following suit.

"Yeah, I know," she answered, though she knew he didn't need to hear it. She hadn't needed Hawkeye's order, either. She knew exactly what Loki wanted from her, but she felt loathe to do anything for him. Why was she even here? She should be helping _her own team_ set up the machine, not here being absolutely pointless in a situation she had not a shred of experience in. Hawkeye would do just fine without her. She was a rational mind, and rationality dictated that she shouldn't be anywhere near this assault.

Loki's intent was never quite discernible to her. Only when he wanted her to know something did he let her have it.

Her purpose here was not one of those things.

Her feet (or Loki's magic) began to carry her along the array of service catwalks that lined the Helicarrier ceilings and hidden passages. She wasn't entirely aware of her surroundings when she heard a massive crash from beneath her. Her blank eyes snapped towards the sound. She found herself on the ceiling of some sort of repair shop, with jets she couldn't identify with mysterious hatches popped open and men in shop scrubs mulling beneath her. Until they all froze at the large intrusion of their space.

A massive, muscled, and obviously angry green creature rolled from a gaping hole in the wall, opposite a much smaller, but still impressively sized man.

A man with archaic armor and long blonde hair.

The only man strong enough to hurl the Hulk through a wall.

His face flicked upwards towards his opponent, totally unaware of her eyes on him, the lights catching the blue of his eyes.

Jane didn't understand why her heart was in her throat.

He looked familiar, and for some reason she knew his name. His name was very important to her.

Thor.

Thor?

_Thor!_

For a minuscule amount of time, she felt Loki's magic recede, as if it shied away from the brilliant light that suddenly filled her. But with the light came the worry, because damnit, he was about to face down the Hulk!

She was about to yell for him, tell him to back the hell away, to run, something, but everything in her stopped. Jane's demeanor did not change in her instant of pure freedom, and Loki's heavy magic instantly stilling and burying all thoughts she had of the man who had risen and was now battling a rage monster twice his size.

The fog of Loki's magic stirred restlessly. It had become easy enough to ignore, like an object far in her periphery vision, but now it swirled in her mind like a sleeping dragon awoken. It encroached upon her conscious slowly enough, so slowly she almost didn't notice it.

As she felt the fog grow stifling, Jane lost control of her limbs. She knew this was Loki's doing, and grew angry at him for doing this. This wasn't a part of the deal! She gave him the portal and the world would give her recognition, respect! He wouldn't just use her body to suit his own purposes!

With all of her attention now gone from the battle below her, she began walking much faster in the direction of... What?

The large repairs garage was far behind her and she was in one of the small service passages when her body stopped, and looked down. With a grace she never knew she was capable of, Jane planted a foot on a vent cover, kicked it from its moorings, and dropped through it as if she were an assassin/spy like Hawkeye. She landed lightly in a deserted hallway, and walked in a direction not of her choosing with the blare of an alarm and the flash of the alarm lights in her eyes.

Here she was, completely under Loki's control and waltzing down a hallway of the Helicarrier as if she ran the joint.

The astrophysicist's mind went latent, almost like when she was just on the precipice of sleep but hasn't quite fallen into it, except it was perpetual and suffocating. Loki guided her through the maze of halls, and if she had any sort of awareness, she would have been surprised she ran into no SHIELD agents. Loki was intentionally avoiding them. If she were aware, she would have scoffed at him for not keeping her in the service passages.

Her puppet body eventually reached Loki's prison from a very convoluted route through the carrier. He didn't look surprised or relived to see her as he loosened his magic, giving her reign over her limbs again. The memory of the fight in the garage was buried deeply. It was almost as if she had no recollection of being anywhere near the garage.

Now back in (semi)control, Jane glowered at him through the glass. "Never. Do that. Again," she spat, carefully enunciating each of her words.

Loki seemed to find this amusing, which she found infuriating. Her mind was trapped in a paradox, simultaneously hating Loki with every scrap of her being and wanting to shout her praise to the god of mischief to the heavens and beyond because he validated her research. The two emotions, hate and absolute adoration, were felt so strongly at once nearly overwhelmed her. Her head hurt briefly until the hate suddenly faded away, and she looked to the control panel.

She knew what she had to do now. Loki must be freed.

The control board looked rather complex, but her brilliant mind quickly figured out how it worked, and with a few flips and switches, she finally hit the release button, and the door opened without a sound.

Loki strode out so casually you would never guess he was escaping maximum security confinement. His eyes were alight with psychotic mischief. He paused for a moment, his head cocking to the side a moment as if he sensed something (or someone) drawing near, and grinned a wicked smile. A doppelgänger shimmered into existence in the cage. "Come here, my slave," Loki beckoned.

Even if Jane had the capacity to resist, his tone wasn't asking any favors. Without the ability to truly comprehend what she was doing, Jane willingly walked into the cage meant for the Hulk. Loki's double pulled her close to his body, one arm around her neck. It was loose, so she was in no form of discomfort, but she could feel that something monumental was about to happen.

The true Loki stepped off to the side as a veil of invisibility fell over him. His brother drew near.

* * *

 

Thor was not gravely injured from his fight with Banner's alter ego, but he had not anticipated such power in the giant green beast. But he could not deny that he felt utterly sore, like all his joints had been dislocated and then snapped back in place. He had grown concerned towards the end of their battle that he might actually become seriously wounded. He was so relieved when a Midgardian had captured the attention of the Hulk and encouraged the rage monster out of the Helicarrier.

Now, he was running full tilt towards Loki's prison. This was his brother's doing, and he was sure everything going on was merely a distraction to allow Loki adequate time to escape.

Upon his arrival to the room where his brother was being held, he had such a vivid flashback to his nightmare before arriving on Midgard it nearly crippled him.

The door to the cage was wide open, and there was Loki, grinning like the soulless miscreant Thor had insisted he was not. And in his arms, looking so perfectly placid it broke Thor's already damaged heart, was Jane.

Her eyes glimmered an unearthly blue, and his heart broke even more. Jane would have been unable to fight Loki's magic. She was literally a slave to Loki's will.

Thor had always been one to throw himself into a situation and sort out his thoughts later. That was what he did now, with a great, roared, "No!" Thor lunged towards Loki and the captive Jane.

His arms immediately went around Jane, trying to pry her from Loki's grasp- which shimmered out of existence as soon as Thor had Jane in his arms. His momentum carried them to the ground, Thor taking the brunt of the fall.

Thor immediately recovered, getting to one knee quickly and running his eyes over the downed scientist.

Jane lay unresponsive, eyes blue and wide open. Her expression was blank, as if she did not even realize where she was, who she was with. His eyes moved from his love, who appeared physically unharmed for the most part, to the true Loki outside the cage.

"Are you ever _not_ going to fall for that?" the God of Mischief asked drily, but there was dark amusement in his eyes.

Thor felt betrayal well up in him, and flew at the transparent prison wall, Mjolnir making a large crack in the surface.

The prison shook precariously, freed from the bonds that had kept it stationary.

Fury's demonstration of the cage's treacherous trap sprung to his mind.

All at once, Thor knew _exactly_ what his brother's intentions were.

Loki laughed. _Laughed_. The wound of betrayal grew. "The humans think us immortal... Shall we test that?"

"Loki," he began, his tone pleading, fringing on begging, "do whatever you wish to harm me, but... Please, _please_ leave Jane. Let her out. I will not fight, just please _let her out._ " While he spoke, Thor backed slowly away from the cage wall, and knelt next to Jane once more.

Loki's head cocked in cool calculation, "Once, your begging would not have fallen upon deaf ears. Thor, son of Odin and heir to the throne of Asgard, begging for the life of his kept mortal doxy. That just sounds too perfect to be real." The former prince smiled, a twisted gesture. Thor's expression of carefully managed rage and fear failed to change. "Dear Thor, you are as dull as I remembered. I have but one hope for you and your mortal." Loki paused, and the blood son of Odin felt like he was choking. "You will see her die, Thor. Violently. Painfully. And do you know why I wish death upon this mortal?"

Thor could only stare, but it was plain that Loki was speaking in cruel, bald rhetoric.

" _Because she knew you._ Because she knew you, and you meant something to her. That reason, and that reason alone is why she must die today, Thor. Even if your heart continues to beat after hers has ceased, know that she dies today because of you." Loki's last words were calm. Sure. No trace of remorse or second thought.

He moved to the control panel.

"Step away please." The words were a shock to Thor, and his eyes trained on the speaker. The Son of Coul. "You like this?" he asked, deadpan, gesturing with the strange, glowing weapon in his hands. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does." The weapon seemed to engage then, the sides flaring in brilliant slits of orange. Thor almost smiled. Agent Coulson was a brave man, among the bravest of the mortals. He would forever be in the man's debt. "Do you want to find out?"

And then, when Thor was beginning to feel better about the precarious position he and Jane were placed it, Phil moaned in pain, the tip of Loki's spear appearing through Coulson's chest.

" _NO!_ " The word tore from him involuntarily.

Loki stood behind the Son of Coul, pushing the spear deeper into his chest. The red of blood bloomed like a macabre rose on Agent Coulson's chest. It was a grievous wound, one that eve the most durable of mortals would likely not recover from. Thor's horrified gaze went to his brother, whose expression was cold indifference. Jaw set, eyes blank.

Everything in Thor just stopped. He became unaware of everything, even the comatose Jane, except for his brother. Who now enjoyed killing. Rejoiced in pain and suffering. He didn't recognize the man in front of him, the man who callously stepped around the body of the now downed Son of Coul without a second glance.

Who was stepping towards the control panel like there hadn't been a single hiccup in his plan. Like he hadn't just murdered a man for no reason other than that he was there.

" _Loki, no!_ "

But his words were far too late.

One moment he is looking upon the malicious face of Loki, the brother he no longer knew, and the next he and Jane were falling through the blue Midgardian sky.

It was disorienting, and Jane was still absolutely silent and completely limp as the cage spun heedlessly around them.

Their bodies flew about the cage like ragdolls, Thor's heavy impacts making large cracks in the glass walls. He winced every time Jane made a particularly vicious contact. His body could surely sustain such hits, but her mortal form was not as durable as his Aesir body.

Each time they flew past each other, Thor would reach desperately for her, anything to try and bring her small body to his, and each time he would miss. His fingertips would just brush against her, cling desperately, but ultimately would not catch her. It was madness.

Thor became more and more mindful of the rapidly approaching ground.

It was sheer luck that he caught her when he did. Just flew right into his arms, and he didn't waste the opportunity to clutch her to his chest.

Her eyes sprung open when he did so, and he saw the deep brown he had so missed.

His relief was short lived, as he finally got his footing. The ground was so close. He could see the rocks and sand and sea, the prairie grass beyond the shoreline. It took all of his focus to prepare his takeoff.

"Hold on," he whispered, as he launched with Mjolnir through the glass and out of the cage. Jane was clinging to him like a lifeline, and his arm was snug around her. The glass shattered around Mjolnir, and the pair went with it.

They were too close to the ground, he realized. He hadn't even had a proper takeoff.

His flight was absolutely chaotic, and he knew that no amount of corrections could stabilize it. They were going to hit the ground no matter what he did.

In a split second decision, he let go of Mjolnir, and wrapped both arms around Jane. Thor manipulated their positions in the air so that he would hit the ground first and hopefully spare Jane from injury. He was doubly terrified because he knew she would never survive such a catastrophic impact. He prayed to the Valkyries and Odin and any and all others that he could think of to spare Jane. For the first time in his life, he spared not a single thought for himself.

Let him die, for all he cared. Just spare Jane.

The impact was thousands of times greater than Thor feared it would be.

Jane's pained scream would haunt him for the rest of his life. He could literally feel her breaking in his arms, and the feeling was killing his soul. He struggled to retain his hold on her, and to keep himself in the path of the unforgiving earth they had come down upon.

Dirt and grass flew up around them, and he tried to ignore the feeling of Jane's blood beginning to coat his arms. Her arms, once tensed and clutching the chestplate of his armor, were now crooked and bent unnaturally. Her entire body felt like dead weight. The comparison sickened him.

At long last they came to a heaving halt, the trench left behind by Thor no small feature added to the landscape. He didn't think of himself as he stood gingerly, holding Jane against him like she was the fragilest of beings.

Her chest expanded weakly against his as he laid her down in the grass with as much care and gentleness as he had ever done anything. Her breathing was shallow, interrupted by these choking sounds that made him think she was being smothered by her own blood. Her body was broken.

He hadn't spared her from any injury at all. The realization shredded him inside, and tears, for the first time in a long while, threatened his eyes.

Her eyes were no longer pale blue, and he briefly recalled seeing them before he tore them both from the falling prison, but the natural doe brown his imagination had never done justice to. They focused on him for a moment, something akin to relief and happiness glimmering in them and her lips slowly smiled, but the action looked weak. She opened her mouth to try to say something, but no words came as it became a cough, with droplets of blood coming from her mouth to splatter on her face and him, and then an agonized moan.

Then her eyes slipped closed.

"Jane!" he exclaimed in panic, "Jane, please open your eyes," Thor begged, fear-roughened voice breaking. She was so still as the grasses waved around her. "Jane, my love, please," he plead again, and he swept her waving hair from her broken and bleeding face.

What use was his strength now? Here was Jane, dying in the grass, and all his brute strength, all his courage and fortitude, all his confidence, all his powers cowered in the face of a challenge that he could not overcome.

His fear exploded inside of him as he let out an enraged roar. Why did he do this? Why did he cause such damage to those he loved?

Was this all he was destined for? Death and destruction and ruin? He cursed the Fates, his father... Loki. His once-brother.

He was pulled so suddenly into the depths of a memory he nearly jolted away from Jane.

_A look of sympathy so clear on Odin's face_

_Thor's stallion, Toothgrinder, laying on his side in a stall, blood on his sides and sweat soaking his flanks_

_Horses are of Midgard, after all_

_They are breakable_

_Such grief, Thor looking down at his downed partner_

_The healers cannot do anything more, my son_

_Why not_

_Toothgrinder groaning, Thor wincing_

_This is beyond any healing spell_

_Sadness, horror, longing_

_He will receive a warrior's welcome when he arrives at the gates of Valhalla_

_Why must he go to Valhalla father I want him to stay here with me_

_Death is something no being can stop_

_Anger_

_I should be able to_

_Oh, son, your talents lie not in healing but on the battlefield_

_I wish I was more like Loki_

_Toothgrinder's breath coming slower and shallower now_

_Envy, sadness, grief, anger_

_I believe that this is beyond your brother's abilities_

_I should be able to_

_Love, determination, love, happiness, warmth, gold and silver and spinning colors, love_

_then_

_Toothgrinder breathing deeply_

_Toothgrinder standing_

_Toothgrinder nickering to Thor gently_

_Toothgrinder playfully butting his head into the prince_

_Surprise, shock, relief, love_

_Thor's stunned face turning to his father_

_A look of distaste so clear on Odin's face_

The only half-remembered experience suddenly filled him with fierce determination as he stared upon the woman he loved, inches from the gates of Valhalla in his arms. He couldn't, for all his ranks and respect and power, remember how he had healed Toothgrinder. He hadn't even remembered the experience until this moment, and it raised many questions that he would eventually need answers to, but now, all he could think of is how he couldn't remember how he had done it. He wished fervently he could, but since reality was Jane coughing blood onto his armor, he could only try to resummon the powers that he was afraid had left him forever.

Thor let his eyes fall closed. He tried to recall his boyhood, before Mjolnir had claimed him, before he was the warrior prince of Asgard or the God of Thunder, and before his brother was the God of Mischief and Lies. When he was just Thor, and his brother was just Loki, and they were best friends. The purity and innocence of childhood were virtues he lost long ago, and he struggled to recall their presence.

He tried to remember the light and unconditional, childlike love that had poured forth from him, had flowed as easily as the tides. How his shunned powers of healing had come to the surface in a warm, golden flash of giving a piece of himself to another living being.

He placed his hand on Jane's battered face, trying to push all that warmth into her still body. He suddenly felt the magic begin to flow, barely a pinprick of exchange at first. Almost like pulling a piece of his soul from his fingertips, but it wasn't painful. It was a piece of his soul that rejoiced in giving, in healing, in kindness and selflessness that had somehow been buried beneath the callous, war-hungered man he had become.

The pinprick of pulling continued, but he felt that it was not enough.

He filled his thoughts of Jane. The way her lips curved as she laughed on the roof of her building with the fire crackling in front of them. How the soft orange glow made her skin look like molten bronze and her hair like the finest Alfheim silks. Her kind, beautiful soul. Her merciful eyes and sweet smile. Her passion, her determination. Her faith in him so great he sometimes wondered if he could ever hope to deserve one such as her. The pinprick became larger, growing and expanding like the light of day as the sun broke over the horizon. He felt as if he were pouring his entire essence into her, breathing life into her broken body. It was magnificent.

Had his eyes not been closed, he would have seen the cuts and gashes closing, the skin as smooth and flawless as if nothing had happened. The injuries that couldn't be seen- the bleeding brain, punctured lungs, the hemorrhaging organs- all began to clot, and the tissue healing without scars. The broken bones were slower, their healing more ungainly, but they slowly moved back into place, their shattered ends meeting and knitting back together. Jane was slowly becoming whole again.

Her damaged heart with it's once broken beating, began to pump once again as the inexplicable magic of Thor hugged her close and carried her safely away from the entrance of the netherworld.

The flow of magic gradually became smaller, tapering off in a way that did not feel as if Thor was failing. Simply that he had done enough, and it was time to stop. He swallowed heavily, afraid to open his eyes and find that he had not done anything. That Jane still lay dying and he could do nothing to prevent it.

But, that was not what he saw when he finally gathered his vaunted courage and opened his eyes.

She was whole again. As beautiful and healthy as the fateful day he had called down the Bifrost and promised her that he would return. Her clothing bore the marks of their crash: her shoes long lost, her pants torn along seams and ripped open all along her thighs and knees, her outer flannel shirt was gone, the only evidence it had even been on her were a few red strands of cloth clinging to her inner shirt, a loose-white shirt that bore so much blood Thor nearly broke down. But the body beneath those tattered remains was healthy, healed.

He was afraid when he looked upon her and saw her so still, but he put a hand to her chest, the blood still wet against his palm, and felt a steady, strong beating there. He smoothed over her face fretfully, pushing the strands of hair from her features. He didn't trust his voice, but needed her to wake up. Softly, he said, "Jane? Jane, love, open your eyes."

All seemed right in the world when her eyes flickered open.


	8. Freefall

On top of Stark Tower, a strange machine began to turn slowly, its blades reaching for the sky. An unknown scientist, one of the assistants under Jane's employ, followed the notes in a small, leather notebook, entering commands into the computer.

Meanwhile, Loki smiled and looked out at the sprawling Earth city. It would be the first to fall.

_It will not be long now._

* * *

 

It was disorienting. There was pain, a lot of it, so much so that she can barely remember exactly what transpired.

She saw Thor. That she remembers.

They were together, and they fell. Loki had smiled.

They fell, Thor caught her, and then the pain.

Each moment became clearer and clearer in her mind as the memory of crashing into the unforgiving surface of the earth was branded onto her brain. The impact, the jarring, breaking, unbelievable impact, feeling the broken bones, Thor's arms futilely attempting protection.

Thor was there, looking down on her, and she remembered smiling. He didn't look happy to see her. He looked worried, no, more like terrified on a level she couldn't fully comprehend when each breath was a struggle and the pain suffocated her mind.

He came back. He hadn't lied.

It gave her peace. He was here, and everything was fine now. It didn't hurt (She remembered slipping. The pain wasn't magnified, it was dulled, easily ignored. Logically, she knew that was bad. Very, very bad. That the body was shutting down, that pain meant you were alive. But there, on the ground, Jane wasn't worried about it.) and she began to just slide away. Like she was being gently pulled into the middle of her brain, a feeling of relaxation. Like her mind detaching from her body.

And then she wasn't. She went inwards, and then came back out, like something had grabbed her just before she went beyond some unnamed point of no return. She had no conscious thought, and she wouldn't remember the sensation of being pulled when she awoke.

What she did remember was the feeling of warmth, deep affection that squeezed her gut and tightened her throat, and of this strange wave of heat that focused intensely on points throughout her body.

She was feeling _magic_ , and Jane wondered if this is what death felt like.

And then she opened her eyes and found she wasn't dead at all.

Thor was still there. She hadn't imagined him. He was there, beautiful and alive and huge. There was think look of shock and awe on his face that didn't quite register. She'd forgotten how large he was compared to her. One of his hands nearly engulfed the back of her head, and despite the knowledge that he could probably crush her skull if he had half a mind to, she wasn't afraid.

Despite their bizarre meeting, Darcy and Erik's suspicions, his own rather curious actions, never once had she felt fear in his presence.

Quite frankly, her mind was too scattered at the moment to really focus on any of those things. The only things she knew were that Thor was here and she should be ( _is?_ ) dead.

"Thor?" His name was weak on Jane's tongue, but he shook with relief when he heard it.

Of all the things he wanted to say to her, he said none of them. Thor just pulled her into his arms, bringing her tightly to his chest with a heaving exhale. "Oh, Jane," he finally breathed. "My wise, beautiful Jane."

He held her for several long, heavy moments. When he finally released her, he laid her back down gently in the grass. "Where- What- How did I-" She tripped over her words in the most unflattering manner, but Thor didn't seem to mind, and just silenced her with a gentle hand on her cheek.

"Hush, my Jane. We are somewhere on Midgard, I know not the precise location. Your mind was controlled by Loki, and he dropped us from your Carrier in the Sky."

Her brain was slowly re-righting itself, and she could finally handle clear lines of thought. "How am I still alive?" she finally managed.

"I... I healed you." His tone indicated he himself didn't quite believe it.

"Healed me?" Jane's mind raced, trying to figure exactly why that didn't seem so bizarre to her. "The stories," she remembered, "said you were the god of healing."

His expression became complicated then. Hardened, but softened at the same time by confusion and hurt. "Then it appears Midgard was more aware of my powers than even I." _That_ was obviously a loaded statement, and Jane didn't think she had it in her just yet to discern just what he meant by it. Thor obviously didn't want to talk about it either as he soon after said softly, "I have missed you, Jane Foster."

"I've missed you, too," she admitted, smiling. Sick of looking up at him from their somewhat awkward positions on the ground, she began to slowly sit up, the rush of blood in her head nearly making her sway and fall back again, but Thor kept an arm steady behind her, helping her until she was fully seated and they could (jeez, he was bigger than she remembered) almost see eye-to-eye. She couldn't help but snicker softly at her invalidity. "This is not exactly how I pictured us meeting again."

This brought a small smile to his face. "Yes, I did imagine it being in much lighter-hearted circumstances. As well as much sooner... Jane, you must know that I had every intention of returning to you."

She wasn't sure what to say. "I..." She tried to begin saying _I know_ ( _she didn't on all days_ ) but the inflections of what that meant for them she hadn't measured yet. There were obviously things they had to talk about, and she wasn't even sure what his expectations were, or her own for that matter, or even if there was a _them_ to be discussed. Well, she was pretty sure the latter was up in the air. _He had kissed her back, after all._ So perhaps not... Well, she never was good at being sappy anyway. She finally settled on "What happened up there? We detected massive readings from what I think was the Bifrost and then they just... stopped. Like something was cut off." She got her feet under herself and steadily rose to her feet, without the head rush that had accompanied sitting up. Thor didn't let her go.

Thor sighed wearily, "I had to destroy it to prevent my brother's destruction of Jotunheim." He sounded like he would never get used to saying that. "Jane, I will tell you everything you wish to know, but I must rejoin my Midgardian shieldbrothers and stop Loki."

Jane's eyes widened for a brief moment, as if she'd forgotten him altogether. She hadn't, not really, but the situation had faded into the back of her mind. "Loki, he has the machine!" Suddenly, all her plans and thoughts and calculations from her time under Loki's command leaped forward. She had opened the stars, invented a wormhole, proved so many theories and showed a practical demonstration of the fourth dimension... accomplished everything she had ever dreamed of doing all in order to assist in the downfall of her world. "Thor, he's going to open the portal in the middle of New York City!"

Thor became unreadable. "You must direct me to this City of New York. I must stop my brother from causing any more harm to your realm."

Jane nodded already trying to estimate exactly where they were. Somewhere along the coast obviously. Jersey, maybe? As she did so, she insisted, "Thor, I'm coming with you. I can turn off the portal, maybe even prevent it from being opened if Loki hasn't-"

"No." Thor's voice was solidified with a finality as he moved to stand directly in front of Jane. She didn't sway without his support, standing firm, feeling her temper begin to stir.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Excuse me?"

Despite now being at odds with her, Thor showed no give. "No, Jane. I've put you in harms way for long enough. I am not inclined to let it happen again under my watch."

Trying to keep her voice calm and just barely succeeding, Jane said, "Thor, this is my choice. You can't just take it away from me because you feel guilty."

"I am trying to protect you!" Thor defended.

She lost her struggle with trying to keep her temper in check. "And I am trying to protect my planet! Do you have any idea how many people live in New York City? If that portal stays open, a lot of them will die!" The full ramifications of what she had built had begun to hit her.

Thor's tone was calmer than hers, but it was obvious he'd be shouting pretty soon as well. "Jane, it is not your responsibility to-"

"Like hell it's not!"

"Jane, see reason! You will be walking into battle, one you are not equipped to fight!"

"If I can shut off the device, there won't even be a battle for me to walk into!"

"Loki's war will have begun long before you can arrive to stop it."

"Thor, I made this whole thing possible, I handed the bridge to Loki on a silver platter. I _built_ that thing. I am the one responsible, and I need to make it right."

"Jane you are not being rational! You will be offering yourself to harm, to Loki's machinations."

"You don't think I know that?"

"Jane, it is war!"

"One that I made possible!"

"You are assigning blame where none lies! Loki's control of your mind was not something you could fight-"

"Thor, you cannot tell me that I-"

His next words were accompanied by a loud clap of thunder. "Jane, we cannot continue to waste time!" The loud roll of thunder seemed to jolt them slightly out of their argument, and Thor sounded much calmer. "The Chitauri are upon us, and I must do my part as sworn protector of Midgard. I... I cannot do so if I know you are in harm's way." His tone became tender, pleading. "Jane, please. For my sake, do not pursue this."

She heard his point. It was a valid argument. "Thor, I... I can't just let it go."

"For me?" he pleaded. "I beg of you Jane. I will prostrate myself on my hands and knees if you require it-"

"Please don't," she said gently, the hint of a reluctant smile playing on her lips. "I understand where you are coming from, I do. I'm just not sure I can just stand off to the side and leave it alone. The fact of the matter is that I _did_ build it, and I am the _only_ one who knows how to shut it off."

He stepped into her personal space once more, framing her face with his hands. "I know not what other words I may use to persuade you." _Except..._ He looked her dead in the eye, and, as serious as he was earnest, "I think I may love you, Jane Foster," he saw her eyes widen, but he didn't let it stop him despite the fact that his heart was in his throat, "and I am not strong enough to lose you."

She was silent. Mostly in shock, partly in contemplation. Her mouth fell open, but nothing came out. She couldn't bring herself to say _I love you, too_. Because did she? They knew each other all of one week before the Bifrost swept him up and never returned him. Sure, she had feelings for him. A lot of them and pretty intensely, more than she had ever really felt for anyone else, but then again she's always been a bit of an emotional cripple. Was it love? She really, really didn't know or want to answer that right now. "Okay," was her brilliant response. She felt heat rush to her cheeks. _Really, Jane? Your response when someone says I love you is Okay?_ To be fair, there was a lot on her mind at the moment.

Thor didn't seem to mind, and Jane was glad for that. She hated to see him in distress. A thumb brushed gently over the skin of her cheek. "Jane, please."

An insane plan began to form in Jane's mind. And it would begin with a lie. "I will stay behind on one condition."

"Anything," Thor answered.

His desperate tone nearly made her wince. "Turn off the portal. Get Loki's scepter. That's the key to turning it off." She dropped to the ground, much to Thor's initial confusion. When she began to draw a rough diagram of her machine in the dirt beneath their feet, Thor understood what she was doing and dropped down beside her. Her drawing was about as accurate as one could expect from a drawing in the dirt, but she was sure Thor would get the gist. "Right here. Right at the crown," she stabbed a finger just below the square she had drawn that represented the Tesseract. "You put Loki's scepter there and it will disrupt the Tesseract's energy and," she drew an exaggerated slash above the diagram, "close the bridge."

Her acquiescence was obviously a relief, and she nearly felt him sag with it. "I shall do as you have commanded, my lady." The pair stood together. She felt the guilt begin when he smiled, broad and beautiful, in his gratitude. God, why was this so hard? For some reason he just seemed so goddamned innocent. It felt like lying to a kid.

And then he wasn't childlike at all when one of his hands dropped to her hip, pulling her close to him. Well, their attraction to each other hadn't changed. Not one bit. The contact felt alive, humming with some sort of tension that needed to be released. And standing this close to the Thunder God was pretty heady. _God, Jane. Control yourself._ The other hand went to cup her head, threading through her hair that was still filled with blood and dirt, and brought her forehead to his. "When this is over, Jane, we must have words."

She couldn't help but notice his use of when and not if. Thoughts of him drained from her head, while darker, horrible images replaced it. That darker part of her was screaming _if if if it's over, if if if I didn't kill millions of people, if if if I am not responsible for the fall of Earth._ She put on a smile, despite how plastic it felt on her face. She hoped Thor didn't notice. "I know. Just go save the world first."

As soon as she finished her sentence, a violently blue beam shot up into the sky northeast of where they stood, and much closer than she had anticipated. So they probably weren't in Jersey after all. Jane looked beyond Thor, and he turned to face the evidence of his brother's betrayal.

To Jane, it was beautiful and horrific. The absolute paragon of theoretical astrophysics and the vision of what could be (would be?) the downfall of their world. It was a confusing mix for Jane.

A window appeared in the sky, looking through to the blackness of outer space.

Then the Chitauri descended, ink stains spreading across the blue of the sky.

Jane's eyes snapped urgently back to Thor. He looked torn between her and his duty, so she set his priorities straight quickly. "Go," she commanded, a touch desperately, worriedly. If her life was perfect, it would've been a perfect moment for the hero to kiss his girl before taking off to save the day. Unfortunately, her life wasn't picturesque.

Thor closed his eyes and breathed deeply before stepping away from her. She took a couple of steps after him, but he held up a hand. "It is best to not be by my side right now, my Jane."

She followed his words, and took several large steps back. He held out his hand, and she heard a magnetic hum as Mjolnir returned to him. He raised it to the sky, and dark clouds rolled in faster than was naturally possible, and poured lightning down upon the one the storms bowed to. It was natural reaction for a gasp to come from Jane, but as she watched it ensconce him, she recognized the scene as the one that had resurrected him after his encounter with the Destroyer. There was a much more tangible, physical feel to Thor's armor appearing than Loki's tendency to summon it up from nothing; his cape unfurled from nowhere, and the chainmail that seemed to have no gaps being magnetically pulled onto his arms.

 _Don't have a science geek-out, Jane. Don't. You already said Okay to his I love you._ Suddenly testing Thor's magnetic signature became a very interesting prospect.

Focus, she internally snapped. It didn't take much for her to pull back, listening to the sound of gunfire and explosions now coming from the city.

The lightning soon released Thor, and he was now fully armored. He was a majestic sight to behold, and it made her hurt that she was misleading him. "Please stay safe, my love," he said, so heartbreakingly sincere, she almost spilled her guts then and there. She covered her mouth with her hand in what she hoped looked like appropriate worry. Within no time, he was in the air and flying towards the violence.

Jane watched as scarlet cape fade as he neared her portal.

No matter what she had promised him, no matter what his assurances were that this burden was not hers to carry, it was her fault that the machine was possible.

And she would not stand by and watch people suffer at the mercy of what she began.


	9. Judgement: Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Chitauri are attacking, and Earth's Mightiest Heroes are fighting a losing battle. Jane puts herself in harm's way to stop what her creation began.

Thor touched down on the Stark Tower balcony. "Loki!" he shouted towards his brother, "Turn off the Tesseract, or I will."

His once-brother didn't look surprised to see him. There was dispassion in his eyes as he gazed upon Thor, but that soon heated to Loki's characteristic mischief, now paired with something that Thor had never dreamed he'd see in his brother's eyes- madness and hatred. "There is no stopping it. There is only _the war_."

Thor was beyond angry. The words had crossed his mind so many times _who is this man where has my brother gone_ , but now there was just _anger_ ; rage and grief coming together in a pinnacle of violence. "So be it," he spat.

With a vicious roar, Loki left the high ground, and the two brothers fought on top of Stark Tower.

He knew he could physically best his brother. He's been able to since they were children. While Loki's domain of cunning and mischief had served him well, Thor was the one who knew battle and strength.

But he has never fought this Loki before. Where once Loki would retreat, stay at the fringes of the fight to survey his options and plan his attack carefully (a decision Thor used to scoff at, but now realized was actually a quite effective battle technique in some situations), there was now physicality and brutal hits Thor didn't remember Loki ever making.

His brother was quicker, faster, and stronger than he once was. The older brother in him wanted to be proud, but was instead stricken with grief.

At one point, he was knocked onto the ground, Loki coming at him with Thor having no effective counter, when his newfound friends saved him. He recognized the Black Widow, looking fierce and battle-ready next to a man who could only be her equal with a battered but strong courage in his eyes, firing at Loki from one of their flying machines. Relief was followed by panic as they drew Loki's attack off of him, allowing him time enough to recover, but not time enough to make it impossible for Loki to fire off another shot. The machine's wing was engulfed in flame, the engines whining and straining in protest as it began to fall towards the ground.

He didn't allow himself time to worry for his comrades, and he trusted that they would be able to help themselves. He had a battle to win.

And in the end, however much he'd changed, Loki was a magician.

Thor finally pinned his brother solidly, remembering what Jane had said about Loki's scepter being the key to shut the portal down.

For an Asgardian warrior who had traveled Yggdrasil's branches many times, being near the unnatural doorway was uncomfortable. Like a room that was a few degrees warmer than normal, like an allergy that had not yet turned to hives, a subtle ring in his ears. The pathway was not natural, forced into the fabric of the universe against its will.

Despite everything telling him to trap Loki with Mjolnir and turn off the device, he once again tried to reach out to his lost little brother. "Look at this!" he commanded harshly, "Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?" Loki had always been for logic. Perhaps that hadn't been lost.

Then, something miraculous happened before Thor's eyes. Loki actually _looked_. Saw the destruction and horror and felt its weight. Thor could see it in Loki's eyes. His brother was _back_. He wanted to cry out to the heavens in gratitude, anyone who would listen. His brother had returned. He remembered his mother's words and realized exactly how right she was.

_Not until we are completely lost or turned around..._

"It's too late..."

_Do we begin to find ourselves._

"It's too late to stop it," Loki said hoarsely, hopelessly. His eyes darted everywhere except Thor's face.

"No," Thor said, feeling a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. "We can. _Together._ "

Hope flooded him when Loki's gaze finally fell on him, a shaking smile lighting his gaunt, pale face. All the times he'd doubted that his brother had ever loved him, every question he had about his brother being a lost cause disappeared in that moment because of the joy in his heart pushed them to the back of his mind.

And then Thor felt the blade pierce his armor.

He hadn't felt so horrified since Loki fell.

Hadn't felt so wrong since he realized he could never keep his promise to Jane.

The God of Thunder stumbled backwards, loosing the God of Mischief from where he had been trapped.

The blade was small and hadn't gone deep. He already felt his skin and muscle trying to heal around it, but it was painful. But Thor had gotten better at the art of patience, and brute strength would likely not get him the scepter. So he waited, holding his anger and disappointment and sadness in check while he stumbled to his knees with a hand on the knife. Thor made a show of it (it was not entirely a show...), hoping Loki would take the opportunity to indulge his ego. He wasn't wrong.

"It will always be sentiment that gets you in the end, brother," Loki taunted. "How is Jane Foster? Dropping from that altitude couldn't have been good for her," he said with mock concern. His little brother then had the gall to laugh. Thor was quaking with rage trying to remain still. "These little humans are really so, so fragile. How many things do I have to take from you for you to realize that _I. Win_." Loki copied his actions that he had once done to the Captain in Stuttgart and jabbed the butt of the staff into Thor's bent head.

It was all Thor could do to not react as Loki continued, "I am going to destroy you. I am going to become king. I am going to kill your friends- the little Midgardians who think they are so special, think they can stand against the tide. And, just for a little bit of extra fun, I think I'll go grab your friends from home. Your little minions, Sif, Hogun, Fandral, Volstagg. I am going to kill them, brother. _Just like I killed Jane_ ," he finished his speech, and Thor couldn't stand it any longer.

Thor lunged with a roar, landing a powerful punch on his unsuspecting brother. The God of Mischief stumbled back, allowing Thor to engage once more. The blade digging into his abdomen hurt, but he could easily ignore pain. Such was the warrior's way. After trading a few blows, Thor knocked Loki off balance once again. No matter how much his brother had changed, battle would always be Thor's domain. He let his rage shadow the pain as he pulled Loki off his feet, over Thor's head, and slammed him down into the unforgiving stone of the balcony.

"Is this your vengeance then, brother? Did I destroy yet another thing you love?" Loki hissed from his place on the ground.

Thor was all anger and violence now. "You destroyed my brother. That I know with certainty." Readying himself to finish his brother off, either knock him unconscious of trap him with Mjolnir, Thor called his hammer to his hand. In the space of time it took it to reach him, Loki had rolled off the balcony, leaving the scepter behind.

Thor breathed a sigh of relief while simultaneously being impressed- how had Jane managed to keep the failsafe a secret? It didn't matter, he decided. He would shut the portal, and all the pain he'd caused this world would be over. He grasped the blade still embedded in his abdomen and yanked, not even wincing as the muscle and skin tissue tore around it. He tossed the bloodied weapon aside.

But as he reached down towards the staff, he caught sight of a large contingent of the Chitauri gathering around the Stark Tower balcony. Thor's horror multiplied tenfold when he saw his brother at the helm, giving the troops the signal to fire.

* * *

 

The road wasn't incredibly far from where Jane and Thor had come down, so as soon as she got to the deserted road, she looked both ways, hoping for a car to come along that she could hitch a ride in. Normally, she was pretty opposed to hitchhiking, but, well, _normal_ didn't really apply at the moment. Unfortunately, Jane's luck didn't seem to be turning around at all, and with a sigh, she followed the road's direction which headed for the massive city, and the artificial wormhole torn into the sky.

As her feet tapped out an urgent rhythm on the pavement, her mind, newly in-control of itself, began playing through exactly what she had learned through the duration of her captivity.

While she hadn't been fully in the driver's seat throughout her time with Loki, she had been fully aware for the most part. It was her intellect that enabled the doorway to be punched through the sky, after all, and if she hadn't been able to use her mind, then Loki's plan wouldn't have been possible.

She remembered Thor's words about science and magic- _I come from a place where they're one and the same thing._ The physics she had just done, the math, everything was beyond anything she thought herself capable of, but there was her functioning wormhole in the middle of New York. So she had indeed done magic- she understood it. _Magic is just science we don't understand yet._ Well, now it was understood.

Concepts she knew she would never have had to capacity to understand within her lifetime had Loki's magic not solidified them in her mind and then to have her own human intellect use them for a practical, working purpose in the waking world.

It was, in the most literal sense, beyond anything she could have dreamed.

The answers which she had doggedly sought were now hers, maybe not in a direct sense (it wasn't as if Loki and the Tesseract had just handed them over on a silver platter, nor was it directly correlated to how to reopen Asgard's Bifrost) but Jane was clever enough to draw her own conclusions and apply the results to other situations.

She understood the universe, and despite the horrible way she got her answers, she couldn't deny the utter satisfaction and peace that came along with that knowledge. A selfish part of her was so fiercely happy, so proud of what she had accomplished. She couldn't deny that thoughts of Nobel prizes and finally getting respect crossed her mind.

But, the fact of the matter stood that without Loki's mind control, she could feel her conscience kicking back into gear, and along with it came the guilt, the shame, and the horror at what exactly she had done.

It made her pick up her pace substantially, though she knew at this rate, it would be at least an hour before she reached the city.

And that's when she came upon the parking lot. She and Thor must have come down in some sort of state park, as the landmark sign leading to the parking lot modestly proclaimed it to be the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

Now, Jane has done some dumb shit in her lifetime. Nothing as monumentally stupid but entirely necessary as she was about to do now.

Her heartrate picked up, her palms beginning to sweat as she darted into the parking lot. Her eyes shifted, as she tried a couple of handles. _Jeez, Jane, get a hold of yourself. You helped a Norse god alien open a wormhole; stealing a car shouldn't be nearly as hard._

She was running out of cars to try when her slippery hands finally found an unlocked vehicle. It was a sallow, aged Pinto with peeling orange paint. She was so surprised by the door not being locked, she nearly fell as it swung open.

She slid inside, the skin exposed by her tattered clothing sticking to the vinyl seat. She shut the door behind her, and began to rummage around for a spare key. She rummaged through the glove compartments, only finding kleenex she hoped to god wasn't used and old gas receipts. She checked under the floor carpets, under the seat, in the overhead visor, and everywhere just short of tearing the car apart. She began to feel hopelessly frustrated, thinking that she'd found the only car that was open to find that she had no way to start it.

Then, the tickles of memory came over her, along with a sense of dread. An old boyfriend of hers was a mechanic (no, that didn't last very long) who reveled in showing her just how well he knew how to hotwire cars. And she had a degree in engineering, so she knew she could probably figure out the rest she didn't remember.

Her stomach was erupting with nervous flutters as she used a pen she had found on the floor of the car to disengage the steering wheel lock, and moments later, she used the same pen (thank god it was metallic) to break the plastic access covering to get to the wires behind the ignition. She thanked her luck which was seeming to improve that this car was an older model- those were the only ones she knew how to do this with.

She found the two red wires that were for primary power supply for the ignition switch, the other the connection for the vehicle's electrical circuits. Jane was pleasantly surprised to find them already stripped, as that was a part of the plan she didn't know how she would accomplish without a wire cutter. This car had been hotwired before, obviously.

After twisting the two ends of the wires together, her eyes hunted for the usually-brown ignition wire. She found it stripped and ready like the reds.

She took a deep breath, trying to settle her stomach that was quickly becoming nauseous and steady her shaking hands. Jane brought the ends together, and the corresponding sparks and whines of the engine made her sigh in relief. She hadn't done it wrong. The positive response prompted her hands to steady and she was able to start the car.

The physicist then shoved the wires back into the steering wheel mount, praying they wouldn't short out with any other components, and revved the engine so she wouldn't have to start it all over again.

She'd have to send Nate Shepherd a fruit basket because if she hadn't watched him slide the wires out, which ones to cross, how they sparked she would never ever have gotten to the city. She shifted the car into drive and headed for the road.

She wanted to leave a note or something that said I AM SO SORRY, IT WAS AN EMERGENCY, I SWEAR but Jane didn't want to leave her prints all over. Hopefully this car was insured.

The Pinto was by no means a luxurious ride, but soon she was cruising easily down the highway.

* * *

 

Thor narrowly avoided the first barrage by diving away from the scepter, his grace belying his size when he rolled back to his feet. The onslaught did not let up, only intensified. Soon the stone and metal that held the balcony and Thor and _the key to shutting down the portal_ began to buckle and collapse. In a blaze of energy blasts from the Chitauri weapons and fire from their impact with the balcony, the once-solid stone gave out beneath Thor's feet.

Not wanting to repeat his experience with falling from great distances, Thor managed to take an unsteady flight off of Stark Tower, knowing that no craft could compete with him in flight.

The heavy veil of failure hung over him as he made his way to where his teammates were. He lost the scepter. Just let it slip right out of his grasp in favor of self-preservation. Thor would've dwelled on it, but he was a solider, and this was a war.

And he would fight on.

* * *

 

Jane drove along in the uncomfortably stolen vehicle, feeling worse and worse the longer she was in it.

And then there was a stall in traffic ahead. Roadblock, with several cars behind it. Ahead of the halted cars (which Jane couldn't help but think were all being driven by their legal owners) was the military- what seemed like a small army, in Jane's eyes. Two tanks surrounded by a small contingent of men in military camouflage, all of whom were sporting some kind of rifle.

This was bad. Crap. Couldn't this just go according to plan? Here she was in a stolen car just trying to get to the city to help, to save people, to stop what she started. Panic started to rev up her breathing and heart rate, her already sweaty palms sliding on the steering wheel. _Can I just pull a U-turn and find another way around? Shit, that wouldn't look suspicious at all. No, jesus, if they blocked off this road,_ all _of them must be blocked._

Sounds of explosions and the bright flares of light that went along with the tremors drew Jane's attention to the city. The Chitauri were still descending through the bridge. The bridge she had built.

 _No, Jane. Stop._ She forced herself to get a grip. This was her responsibility. _They're probably just as freaked as you. There's a fucking alien invasion going on, and you just want to know why you can't get through. No... just... get the hell through. They can't shoot you, right?_ When did that become a commonplace thought for her? She was just a scientist and here she is walking into a damned war zone! There were _roadblocks_!

She hopped from the car, not remembering how to shut off said car once the hot-wiring was said and done and not having the time or will to figure out how.

She walked between the lane of unmoving cars, and thinking, _Well, here goes nothing, Foster._ Once she was within their earshot, she took in a big lungful of air, and shouted, "Hey! I need to get through!" She was happy about how authoritative she sounded.

The National Guardsmen sitting on their tanks blocking the road looked to her suddenly, confusion on their faces and hands twitching for their weapons. They looked just as terrified as she felt. "Ma'am, this is an active battle zone-"

 _Authority, Jane. Authority._ "I don't give two shits that this is an active battle zone! I have authorization from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division to get through," she yelled, not slowing her pace in the least.

That didn't solve anything. "What the hell is the Strategic- Homeland... whatever you said?"

Crap. She'd hoped that name-dropping SHIELD (and the full name, none the less) would be enough to get her through minus any bullet holes. _Authority. You got this._ "Government agency that you obviously don't have the clearance to know about. Who the hell is in charge here?"

"What happened to you?" another asked, ignoring her question. Seems they finally noticed her bedraggled clothing.

"Do I fucking look like I have time to hold your hand through this? I can't answer your every goddamn question! Let. Me. Through." She didn't remember the last time she swore so much. Maybe being authoritative led to horribly crass language. That would certainly explain Fury's rather colorful choice of words.

A man, older in comparison to the very young guys on the tanks, stepped out to greet her. She tried to not show him her aversion to weaponry with the M16 at his side. "I'm staff sergeant Mitchell. I need you to-"

"No, I need you to get me a sat phone so that I can call the Director so I can get some freaking clearance."

"I need to see some identification, ma'am."

She mustered her most incredulous look, saved usually just for Darcy, "Are you kidding me? Do you have eyeballs? Were you expecting me to hang onto my ID throughout this ordeal?" she said, gesturing to herself. "Look, just give me five minutes with the sat phone, and I'll be out of your hair."

Sergeant Mitchell considered her speculatively for a few heavy seconds, and she met his stare with a flinty one of her own. "Five minutes."

* * *

 

Meanwhile, the Helicarrier was scrambling to reattain order. Above the hurrying technicians on the Bridge, stood Nick Fury.

"Sir," Agent Maria Hill called from below where she was running the repairs and reassessment, "we're getting a call to your direct line from an unknown satellite phone. The ID code used belongs to Jane Foster."

Fury looked up from the battle readouts appearing on his screen, an uncharacteristic look of surprise on his face. "Foster? How the hell is she alive?" The security footage from the Hulk's prison quite clearly showed the moments before her death. It was tragic, and Fury had wondered if her dying was the reason they still had no location on Thor. But now...

Agent Hill looked as clueless as Fury. "Shall I patch her through?"

There were doubts in Fury's mind. Was she still under Loki's control? Was that even Jane? Would receiving this call put the Carrier in more danger? "Yes." Calculated risk. Romanoff said cognitive recalibration, a blow to the head, was enough to knock Loki's magic loose. If she hadn't sustained any head trauma, then Fury had a full head of hair. Even if it wasn't her, Fury knew interrogation, even over the phone. He waited a moment, pressing his earpiece closer to his ear, "Foster? How the hell are you alive?"

" _It's a long story, Director,_ " a voice that was undoubtedly Jane Foster replied and Fury wondered what kind of Asgardian powers allowed her to live, " _one I plan on sharing, but right now I need to get to the city. And no, Loki is no longer up in my noggin, to answer your question._ "

Not satisfied with the answer, and wanting to find out more information from the doctor who opened the portal, but prudent enough to be succinct and commanding in battle, Fury advised sternly, "Doctor, there's a full-blown war being fought. Now I understand you might think you need to be there, but trust me when I say you are unequipped to-"

" _Fury, I can shut off my machine_."

Fury pauses for a second, partly because not many have ever dared to interrupt him. "Say that again?"

" _I can shut off the machine, and stop the Chitauri from sending any more reinforcements._ "

There's a game changer. Fury paced as he ordered, "Tell me how. I can relay it to Agent Romanoff on the ground." He gestured to Hill to get a connection with either Romanoff or Barton. His second-in-command started flying around the consoles, barking orders at her subordinates.

" _Director, it's... it's not that simple. I told Thor how to-_ "

"Then why the fuck are you trying to kill yourself?" Fury interrupted, returning the favor.

" _Because it's only a partial solution! It'll disrupt the Tesseract's energy, but only temporarily. If I don't completely shut it down, it'll open up again, except it will be much more unstable, and what happened at the SHIELD base will happen to Manhattan._ "

"I don't see why you can't tell me how the machine works-"

" _Fury, the physics I used to create that thing don't even exist on this planet yet! Even Stark or Dr. Banner wouldn't be able to figure it out. Sir._ " She sounded incredibly impatient.

Well. Fury muted his earpiece momentarily. "Hill, how far out are we from being able to send out a bird?" Fury called out, hoping that it was soon so they could send out a jet to grab Foster.

Hill answered, "At least another hour, sir. Optimistically."

Not enough time. He unmuted his earpiece, finally responding to the scientist who apparently held the fate of the world in her hands. "Then why the hell are you talking to me?"

" _There's this military roadblock that won't let me through..._ "

* * *

 

Thor landed unsteadily nearby the Captain, still feeling the stab wound which was painfully knitting itself back together. "What's the story upstairs?"

"Jane built in a failsafe to shut the portal down, and it requires Loki's staff," Thor explained brusquely.

" _Cap, there's a self-generating force-field around the Tesseract,_ " Tony adds via the communicator. Thor can still hear it over the sounds of explosions and terror. " _How does Point Break plan to get through it?_ "

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable without Loki's scepter," Thor responds, ignoring Cap's strange look about how he knew what Tony had said, "but it was lost in the collapse of the Stark Tower balcony."

" _The collapse of WHAT?!_ " Tony demanded, but none of his teammates paid him any mind.

"So let's keep the fight here," Natasha suggested. Thor's admiration and respect for her grew. "Without a leader and a focal point, these things are going to run wild."

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor interjects, making his position about his brother's standing very clear.

A new voice, one laced with sarcasm, said, "Yeah, well get in line." It came from the newcomer, who held intricately designed arrows in his hand, the one with the sharp eyes and heart of mettle. He has a feeling this was the one the Lady Natasha had referred to earlier. _Along with one of ours._ Thor did not begrudge the man his lust for vengeance.

"Natasha's right," Cap said, bringing the focus back in, "Loki's going to keep them focused on us. So we got Stark up top, he's going to need us to-"

There was a lull in the sounds of battle as the rattle of a human-built engine pulled up behind them. The four heroes turned to see Bruce Banner, now back to his original form, on a very small Midgardian transport vehicle. He was framed by flames and overturned cars, yet he looked very... serene.

It was strange, seeing two opposites in the same man, but Thor was glad to see his friend was alive and well after the Hulk had taken the same fall he and Jane had.

"So... This all seems horrible," Banner observed dryly as he approached.

The Widow was the first to respond, "I've seen worse."

"Sorry." His apology was short, but even someone daft as a doornail could see the sincerity bleeding from his eyes.

Natasha was quick to amend, "No... We could _use_ a little worse."

"Stark. We got him," Cap informed.

" _Banner?_ "

"Just like you said." The Captain didn't sound like he entirely believed it himself.

" _Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you._ "

The small flying form of the Iron Man rounded the corner of the building, headed back towards the group. Following him, crashing through part of a building in order to do so, was something Thor hadn't seen in all his years, but he had a feeling he knew what it was.

"Leviathan," Thor breathed, both in disbelief and awe, "I thought such beasts were legends." Old Asgardian stories depicted huge, flying creatures with teeth longer than a man's height, a shell thicker than any arrow, harpoon, or weapon could cut through and harder than any diamond, more power held within it than in the whole of Yggdrasil.

"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha responded.

Thor hadn't battled one of these beasts before, had never seen one until this day, but he had always reveled in new challenges, and he felt a growl rising in his throat. He raised Mjolnir, the power of Earth's weather surging through him. It was a heady feeling.

"Doctor Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry," the Captain suggested.

Walking towards the creature unprotected, Banner only looked back once. He did not appear afraid. "That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." Thor looked at the man holding back the Hulk, admiration growing. This small Midgardian man, so comparatively weak to many of the races of the Realms, yet so much stronger. There seemed to be no end to the things the humans could do to surprise him.

Then Banner let loose the Hulk, clothing tearing to reveal green flesh and such power that even Thor wasn't a completely even match for. That fact was punctuated by a massive fist slamming into the hulking Leviathan. Its massive body followed its momentum, flying upwards. What Thor had assumed was a biological shell turned out to be added body armor, and the plates were obviously not designed for such an assault. The plates began to slide forward, smashing together in a startling cacophony and revealed the unprotected body of the beast beneath.

" _Hang on_ ," Thor hears Stark say, despite the noise, " _I've got this one._ "

Stark, even contained in his impressive battle armor, looked so small and weak in comparison to the huge beast. Thor wondered exactly how he planned on destroying the creature. He saw a small projectile leave Stark's arm, and stick in the side of the Leviathan, and he was confused. How could so puny a weapon-

The large, terrific explosion was entirely unexpected, tearing the Leviathan to pieces. He shielded his face from the flames and light, and soon a laugh overcame him, but only briefly. He vowed that this would be the last time he ever underestimated a Midgardian weapon.

Hope flared deep within him. If these humans could destroy a Leviathan, why would it be so presumptuous to think they could defeat the Chitauri?

It was time for battle.

Thor grinned.


	10. Judgement: Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the battle reaches its pinnacle, Jane finds herself threatened by Loki once more. Thor's worst nightmare has come true and he must make a choice between the brother he knew and the woman he loves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just an update about why this came so late- I broke my hand during volleyball, so my typing speed was down to about nil. Also, I've been doing lots of writing for college/uni assignments so my motivation to even look at a word document was also down to nil. Next chapter is almost done, and the epilogue was almost completely finished minus a couple words here and there, but in transferring documents to my laptop something got messed up in the file and I lost the whole thing. I yelled about it for a while. Anyway, I've got the general idea in my head, so that should come a bit sooner.

Whatever Fury had said to those military guys sure had worked.

They gave her the smallest pair of fatigue pants they had at their disposal, a pair of military boots that were a size too big, and a National Guard shirt. She also found herself with an armed escort of five soldiers and a bulletproof vest (although she was nearly certain they wouldn't protect her from anything the Chitauri had in their arsenals). The only female soldier among them handed Jane a hair tie, and Jane threw her hair back into a ponytail. She felt as ready as she could in this situation.

They loaded Jane into the humvee, and started towards the bridge that would take them into Manhattan.

"We need to get to Stark Tower," Jane explained to the driver, who sat directly to her left. "The arc reactor the building runs on is the only thing that could generate enough energy to start the reaction."

The small name patch on the driver's uniform read 'Beltre.' "We'll get as close as we can, but there will probably be debris as well as abandoned cars blocking the road so we'll have to go by foot for part of the way," Beltre replied. "You're a civilian; well, a civilian with very high military connections, but still a civilian, so you are going to need to stay by at least one of us at all times. Okay?"

"Yeah, I got it," Jane replied bleakly, the view out of the windshield of the humvee not inspiring any sort of confidence in her. Maneuvering the bulky vehicle through abandoned vehicles and citizens who were straggler evacuees on the bridge was not a fun experience. Guilt rang through her conscience, loud and persistent.

Beltre's voice reached her again, pulling her from her fog. "Also, you need to do whatever we tell you to do, got that? We've been told you are a high-priority target, and that means we protect you at all costs. If we tell you to get on the ground, you drop like a rock. We tell you to run, you do it like you're on fire."

_Protect you at all costs._  More people might die because of her. And they all look so  _young._  Beltre couldn't have been more than thirty. Jane nodded silently, not trusting her voice at the moment.

It wasn't until they were off the bridge that the bodies started. At first, it didn't occur to Jane that they were dead. When she saw them lying on the ground, all she saw was the blood and twisted limbs. She grabbed Beltre's shoulder urgently, "These people need help; they're injured!"

Sympathy passed over his features, but it was Velasquez, the one who'd given Jane the ponytail holder, who informed her, "Those people aren't injured, Doc."

"Then why are they-"

And then she really  _saw_  all the bodies. The bent and twisted limbs weren't just simple arms and legs, they were necks and torsos and sometimes limbs were simply  _gone_. There was blood, so much blood but it was in the gallons and nothing that could be recovered from. "Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh my  _god_." She felt the overwhelming urge to throw up. In fact, she was pretty sure she was going to. "I did this."

It cut her deep when no one in the vehicle responded to the contrary. If she'd been thinking logically, she would've known that they had no idea why she'd said that, what the surrounding circumstances of her involvement here were. But to her emotion addled mind, it sounded like condemnation.

Scrabbling at the window, Jane barely managed to open it and stick her head outside before throwing up.

After the roaring in her ears had quieted, she rested a cheek on the window frame and tried to even out her breathing.

_Pull yourself together, Foster. You need to fix this._

Allowing herself no more self-pity, Jane moved herself back into the humvee, closing the sliding window behind her. No one said anything about her break down, and she was grateful for it.

They were now in downtown Manhattan, and there was no possible route around the cars blocking the way. The closer they'd gotten to the city, the stronger the earth-shaking tremors had felt, and now, essentially in the middle of battle, violent shocks from the Chitauri weapons would intermittently shake the ground, vibrating the concrete beneath her heels like a sonic pulse.

"We go on foot from here," Beltre announced. He then gave some instructions to the other soldiers about weapons and formations that Jane only vaguely heard.

They were a few blocks out from Stark Tower, and Jane wished fervently that she firmly believed in some deity she could pray to. She didn't even know any prayers to say. She thought one went _Hail Mary, who art in heaven._  She didn't remember anything after that, so she repeated those words over and over again in her head as the team exited the humvee.

It was her and five soldiers against the Chitauri. "Let's go save the world," she said.

The Chitauri aircraft whined above their heads, and Jane nearly leaped out of her skin when one of the weapons struck near them, sending a spray of concrete bits and dust into the air. The heat was oppressive, pushing into her throat. She coughed, hearing Beltre giving the soldiers the command to pick up the pace.

They were near the base of the tower when there was suddenly a barrage of fire from above. Jane felt the pressing heat of the alien weapons, and heard the sudden shouts of the Guardsmen in tandem with the explosions.

There was roaring in her ears of the fire from the Chitauri, and then the Guardsmen returning fire, and Jane tried not to just freeze, but she didn't know what else she could do. Thankfully, Velasquez grabbed Jane's arm, pulling her toward what looked like some rubble that would afford her cover. Just shy of throwing the small scientist in that direction, Velasquez let go, and yelled, "Stay there until one of us comes to get you!"

Not thinking and barely breathing, Jane took off running for the large pieces of concrete and twisted steel. The cover wasn't great but it gave her room enough to get her act together. She tried to get her breathing back, thinking about each one and trying to regulate the pattern. Fourteen breaths later, Jane risked a look back to where she left the soldiers.

To her relief they all still stood, looking a bit worse for wear, but still standing none-the-less.

Her escorts had told her to not leave their protection, but she could see the top, she could see into outer space, she could see all the Chitauri waiting to descend. She had to act.

When the firing quieted somewhat, Jane got to her feet and began running for the doors. She thought she heard the shouts of the Guardsmen in her ears, calling after her, but she could barely hear anything besides her own heartbeat and breath. Steps away from the doors, she saw something amongst the rubble that brought her to a standstill so fast she nearly slipped on the gravel that coated the ground.

Loki's scepter.

* * *

There was a brief lull in the fighting near where Natasha finally paused in her whirlwind to take a breath with the Captain at the end of the Chitauri gun.

"Cap, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."

"Thor said it wasn't possible without Loki's scepter, and our biggest gun couldn't touch it."

She knew he was right, but her mind raced for a solution. Loki kidnapped Jane Foster, one of the most brilliant scientists SHIELD had in its employ. If science caused this, then maybe science could fix it, with or without the magical spear. "Maybe it's not about guns."

* * *

Jane made for the entrance to Stark Tower with the scepter in hand. The glass doors were completely blown out, so Jane merely stepped through the frame of the door, glass crunching beneath her boots.

The building lobby looked mostly untouched, save for the shattered glass that seemed to cover every inch of the floor. The smell of smoke and blood clouded the air, though, drifting through the now-open windows and doors.

Her eyes flashed around the room, searching. She found what she was looking for- an elevator. She didn't think she had the fitness level required to run up hundreds of flights of stairs, so she hoped this elevator worked.

She slammed a palm down on the button, encouraged by the up arrow illuminating, and repeating the action as if it would help hasten the arrival until the doors opened.

She stepped in, hitting the close doors button. The metal doors slid closed, and the sounds of battle were dampened so much that Jane could barely hear them. After taking a moment to collect herself, the quiet affording her mind the opportunity to relax if only for a few seconds, Jane pressed the button for the topmost floor.

"Apologies, but a special access code is required for this floor," came a disembodied British voice than literally made Jane yelp in shock.

"What the hell?"

She only marginally prepared for the voice to respond. She still jumped a little when it did. "A special access code is required for this floor. If you are not in possession of this code, you will be unable to access the upper floors of Stark Tower."

"Can't you take me as close as you can and then let me take the stairs the rest of the way?" Jane found herself asking. She figured Stark must have some sort of AI; she'd heard enough about it to come to the conclusion, anyway.

"There are coded doors protecting the upper levels from disturbance. The same access code is required to gain entry through the stairways. Would you like to input your access code?"

Jane's mind raced. She may be a genius, but she hadn't the foggiest idea of how to suss out what sort of access code Stark might use. She threw out on a guess, "I- I am Iron Man?"

There was a long pause, long enough for Jane to hope that she'd guessed correctly, dread that she'd gotten it incorrect and the AI was programmed to trap her in the elevator, and despair that the damage to Stark Tower had finally gotten to the AI and it had failed.

Soon though, the voice was back. "Voice print recognized: Doctor Jane Foster. I am so sorry for the inconvenience, Doctor. I am afraid my primary systems are not running as optimally as they could, as they are currently being utilized by Mr. Stark, thus your voice print took longer to be analyzed."

Well, she wasn't expecting that one. "Um, th-that's okay." She was only mildly concerned with how/why Stark has her voice print registered in his building. Also, why was she accepting an apology from the AI?

"You have unrestricted access. Would you like the top floor as you previously requested?"

"Yes, as close to the roof as I can get."

"Of course."

* * *

Jane stepped out of the elevator, and switched the scepter to the other hand, wiping her damp palm against her pants. She found herself in a trashed living space. The windows were shattered, and the remains of what was once a balcony hung off the building in tattered metal beams and cables that twisted in the wind. The scraps of whatever that was littering the floor was probably furniture at some point. She was startled again when she heard a moan coming from the wrecked floor.  _Oh my god, is there someone in all that?_  Knowing that she should head for the roof at all costs, but just wanting to know that she could maybe save this  _one person_  from ending up a mangled body like all the rest.

"Hey," she called, jogging over to the wreckage, "Hey are you-" The breath was sucked from her lungs when she saw Loki rising from the body-sized craters in the floor.

_You are mine, my little pet._

She gasped, stumbling backwards, words she didn't remember hearing slamming into her like a truck. "No," she breathed quietly.

Her fear seized her so firmly, her muscles locked no matter how much she screamed at herself to move. Phantom fingers on her body stilled her movement, the memory of the cold fog over her brain and the ice in her eyes trapping her in the moment.

Loki moved slowly and obviously in pain, and Jane's fear diminished slightly. He couldn't hurt her. Not when she could now fight back. She'd see how well Loki dealt with a fully-functional Jane Foster. She wouldn't go quietly. Not like before. She would die before she let that happen again.

She moved to grasp the scepter in both hands, not sure how to use it as a weapon but she'd be damned if she didn't try.

"My faithful pet has returned," Loki hissed, still mostly in the hole and facing away from her, and she was startled out of her reverie. His laugh was much weaker than normal, but it was still enough to send a chill down her spine.

Instead of responding, Jane gripped the scepter tighter. If she didn't get to the roof soon, the rest of the Chitauri army would descend, and as much as she had faith in Thor and his friends, they would be overrun. The human race wasn't equipped yet to deal with an alien invasion. It was up to Jane.

_What would Thor do?_  Certainly not stand here scared, Jane knew. He was a man of action, and even though Jane knew they were different, she could take a page out of his book to save the world.

Getting a grip on herself, despite the ghosts of cold memories and muffled terror, Jane strode purposefully up to Loki. She moved her hands to the base of the scepter. Simple physics. Class one lever. Force applied, or a, to one side of the fulcrum, and the output, or b, on the other. The distance  _a_  from the fulcrum to the point  _A_  where the input force is applied is greater than the distance  _b_  from fulcrum to the point  _B_  where the output force is applied, then the lever amplifies the input force.

Judging by the damage to the floor, she didn't know how much damage she'd do, but she couldn't just let him go. Her fear, at some point, had turned into rage. He'd  _used her._  Used  _her science_  to make a wormhole to _enslave humanity._

Fuck her non-violent tendencies. Jane Foster wanted some revenge, and she was going to get it.

"I am  _not_  your pet," she spat angrily.

Adding to her force, she took a few running steps, and in a Happy Gilmore-fashion swung the bladed end of the scepter at Loki's head.

The blade cracked against Loki's skull like a gunshot, and an unexpected blast of blue light shot out from the blue crystal embedded in the blade. The blast hit Loki's head after the blade did, and the blue energy exploded outwards, just like the overloading Tesseract had done; it hurled his body away from Jane, crashing to the floor again across the room.

The surprise side-effect of her attack threw Jane backwards just as far. She grunted on impact and felt glass being crushed beneath her kevlar vest.

She tried to sit up as quickly as she was able without putting her hands down onto the glass-littered floor, blinking away the grogginess, not wanting Loki to overtake her easily if he was still able to. She quickly determined that he was likely down for the count, at least for now- the back of his head looked badly burned, and the blade had actually done some damage, and she saw one wide gash along his skull. His body was relaxed, his limbs flung akimbo in a manner that told her he was probably unconscious. Or at least the Asgardian version of unconscious.

Finding her voice again was more of a challenge than she thought, and she barely managed to grind out, "Where are the stairs?" Jane hoped the AI had heard her.

It had, and the AI's calm British voice guided her away from the living space, and a nondescript door led to an industrial stairway with only two flights of stairs, leading to what looked like a trapdoor to the roof.

She pushed it upwards, the sun burning her eyes for a moment before they adjusted. She crawled out onto the graveled roof and came face-to-face with her machine in motion.

Unable to stop herself, she breathed an awed, "Hello, beautiful." Pure science would be marveling at the thing in front of her. She made a damn wormhole. Compressed two points in space into one. She was  _brilliant_.

But while she was brilliant, she had humanity. She had a conscience now, and her beautiful creation made her sick.

She opened the laptop that served as the control panel, and dropped the scepter to her feet so that she could enter commands with both hands.

In the midst of her typing, she was pulled away, by the sound of something hitting the rooftop behind her. She whirled around, reaching down for the scepter as a weapon.

She had only seen Natasha Romanoff a few times under her employ, but most of her experience with the SHIELD spy had come from stories through Hawkeye. As much as she could gather from what she'd been told, the Black Widow was one badass warrior lady.

If the smooth tumble that she did after diving off the Chitauri craft was any indication, Barton hadn't been exaggerating.

Jane relaxed her stance, knowing that she had an ally now on the roof. "Doctor Foster!" called out Natasha.

"I can power down the portal! I need another set of hands," Jane yelled over the cacophany.

"I heard," Romanoff said, far calmer than Jane at the moment, "Tell me what to do."

"Take Loki's scepter. On my mark, place it right at the crown."

Jane's fingers flew like mad across the keyboard, preparing her device for shutdown as quickly as she could.

She was startled from her work once more by a pained grunt from Natasha, and Jane saw the spy fly across the rooftop, rolling to a stop precariously close to the edge of the building.

"Oh, my dear, I'm afraid you just make this too easy."

Jane whirled from her machine in time to see Loki's wicked smile spreading across his face. The skin of his forehead and the side of his face was cracked, bloody, and blackened from the blow she'd bestowed on him earlier.

He looked like he was about to say more, but the Black Widow leapt onto his back, her lithe form moving with inhuman speed. She used the staff as a gag, yanking back with such strength that even the God of Mischief stumbled a bit under its force.

Her eyes burned darkly with revenge.

Jane was about to turn back to the computer and continue the shutdown sequence, leaving Agent Romanoff to handle Loki. She should've known better- Loki wasn't held in place for very long. One of his hands reached back, grabbing Natasha by the throat and dragging her forward, over his shoulder, and slamming her violently into the ground.

Jane flinched, her fear beginning to spike once more.

The scepter flew out of the Widow's hands, skittering only a few inches in Jane's direction. Loki bent down and took the scepter in hand, and then placed the blade at Agent Romanoff's throat. He took a knee, leaning closer to her with his face a few inches from hers. "You puny mortals think yourselves above me? You playact gods, your fragile existences crumbling around the thought of so much power. You will never win," he hissed.

"You're just sore because you got tricked by a puny mortal," Natasha replied, more than a little smugness in her tone. Jane was shocked she was able to respond at all, considering the massive blow Loki had delivered. "Look at you, high and mighty 'Trickster God.' Manipulated by a simple human because he wants to have a pissing contest-" Loki cut her off, wrapping a hand around her throat. Natasha made a choked noise, hands rising to try to pry the stranglehold off.

"I could end your life within an instant and it wouldn't even take much of an effort," Loki growled.

Romanoff was unable to respond as Loki stood, still gripping her by the throat and raising her up so that her feet no longer touched the roof.

Despite the position, Jane saw nothing but defiance and courage in Natasha's eyes. She kept glancing over in Jane's direction, probably more worried about Jane's safety than her own. This woman didn't fear death. In fact, she'd probably welcome it with open arms.

Jane didn't want that to happen. Enough people had died today. _Enough had died because of her actions._

"Stop!" she shouted. "Just stop!"

Loki only turned his head to grin at her. "Oh, my pet, you say that as though it has some sway over me."

"If you don't let go of her in the next five seconds, I will shut the portal down," Jane said with as much conviction as she could manage. For effect, she held a hand threateningly over the keyboard. "One more command and the rest of your army is cut off."

She thought he bought it for roughly two seconds before he laughed. "If you had done such a thing, you'd have activated it long before now. You think that your mind was strong enough to overcome my magic? If I thought mortals had delusions of grandeur before-"

Jane heard the metallic, thunderous hum before she saw its source. Mjolnir flew through the air from behind her, before smashing into Loki's torso. He released the Black Widow, and she collapsed to her knees (Jane realized that had been Widow's plan. Distract Loki until Thor arrived to assist. Once again, Loki had been bested by a human and Jane couldn't keep the malicious satisfaction from flooding through her.) Agent Romanoff, while her actions were calculated, was obviously trying to keep herself together. If the deep breaths she was taking told Jane anything, the spy hadn't been too far from passing out due to lack of oxygen.

Loki wasn't quite knocked off the building, as he stopped his momentum by stabbing the blade of the scepter into the rooftop. Mjolnir was called back to the hand of Thor, who had touched down right beside her. He looked mostly physically okay, minus some cuts and blood, which Jane couldn't say wasn't a huge relief.

"I told you to stay safe," Thor told her quietly, not taking his eyes off his brother who was rising slowly. His tone wasn't quite angry, but it definitely held a note of contained rage.

"Well, I didn't listen," she responded shortly, deciding not to bother with the long explanation at the moment. "I had to do something."

Natasha had recovered by now, and came to stand next to Thor. "We need that scepter," she stated quietly. "Think we can take him?" The Widow's tone said that she already knew the answer to that question.

That tightly controlled rage seemed to unleash, and Jane could almost feel the electricity rising off of Thor. "Absolutely."

A sudden shower of Chitauri fire came down in front of Thor and Natasha, spraying gravel and concrete into the air. Thor kept Jane behind him, and she pressed her face into his cape, protecting herself from the flying debris. Agent Romanoff didn't take full cover behind the Asgardian, turning her back and letting her back and suit take the brunt of the hits from the shrapnel.

The firing let up soon, as several arrows as well as blasts from Iron Man nearly took out the entire squadron above them. Much to their chagrin, others were quick to fill their place.

"Thor, clear the skies over us. We can't have any noise distracting us," the Black Widow commanded.

Despite his usual position as the commander, Thor didn't fight her on the orders. "Can you handle my brother until I rejoin the fight?" he asked.

Natasha's look told Thor that was a stupid question. "I can hold him long enough." She turned back to Jane slightly whilst not taking her eyes off Loki, who appeared displeased by the poor aim of his army, "How long until the portal is prepped for shutdown?"

"Minutes," Jane answered, "Ten tops."

Thor headed for the side of the building, storm clouds gathering around them. "You brother's not immune to electricity, is he?" the Widow called out as she began her slow stalk towards the other Asgardian.

"No," Thor responded, lifting Mjolnir to the sky. Lighting shot both from the clouds and from Mjolnir, exploding the Chitauri crafts in magnificent plumes of fire; the smoldering remains fell to the streets below.

Jane caught the hint of a smile on Natasha's face before she turned fully from her. "Excellent." Her slow stalk became a sprint, as she and Loki charged at each other across the short space of the Stark Tower roof. Instead of leaping up as was the Widow's usual course of action and what Loki had evidently been expecting, she slid to the ground like she was playing baseball. As she slid past Loki's leg, she planted a fist into the side of his knee, and the crackling sound of something that sounded like a high-powered taser lit the air, and blue bolts of it ran through Loki's body from his knee.

Natasha wrapped an arm around his leg, the electricity not consuming her in return (probably a non-conductive polymer in her suit, Jane figured.) and Loki stumbled heavily.

It was at that moment that Jane realized she needed to be prepping the machine for shutdown. It was mostly up to the computer systems at this point, as she finally keyed in  **override: primary system**

**override command 616**

Half a second later,  **COMMENCING EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN SEQUENCE**  flashed across the screen. A loading bar appeared at the bottom of the screen. Five minutes until it was prepped to shutdown. The Tesseract had been raised up from the energy amplification and shielding chamber, but the protection of the energy barrier would protect them from the massive amounts of radiation currently being emitted.

A pained grunt from Agent Romanoff reminded her of what was going on behind her. Thor was still clearing a good amount of the Chitauri in the vicinity of the tower, so the Black Widow was still on her own.

Agent Romanoff had been hurled across the roof, and slammed into some metal system unit. She stood quickly, if a bit wobbly. Loki was upon her soon, and the deadly dance the Widow engaged in was beautiful and terrifying. Watching humanity go toe-to-toe with a god and hold her own was something else, but every now and again, Loki would be too fast and too strong for the Widow to avoid the blow.

Each blow was punctuated by the sound of crunching bone.

Natasha managed to land a particularly vicious blow against the burned side of Loki's face, and the blue device around her wrist activated once more, sending a powerful shock of electricity through Loki's body. He stumbled backwards, and instead of following, Natasha retreated backwards.

Her face was bloody, bleeding from her mouth and from a wound on her forehead. She stood a few meters away from Loki, keeping herself between him and Jane, but she didn't stand completely upright. She was hunched to one side before bracing herself and straightening. Jane thought she heard a series of snaps that didn't sound at all healthy. "Ahhh-" Natasha moaned briefly, the sound catching in her throat as though it hurt. Her breathing sounding labored and scraping.

Loki chuckled darkly. He didn't appear to be very hurt by the Widow's assault, but he didn't appear completely unaffected. "You are an interesting opponent. Not worthy, by any means, but interesting. Your body seems more resilient than that of the average mortal. Perhaps more so than your darling Barton?"

"I can't say the same about-hm-someone who relies more on his words-ngh-than his fight," Natasha spat back, her words short and punctuated by loud, shallow breaths and pained noises. She drew one of her sidearms, emptying the clip right at Loki's head. Jane didn't know if it was magic or just Asgardian resilience, but the bullets bounced right off of him.

"And yet it appears I have won," Loki says after her gun falls silent, observing her state. Darting forward, he swept the Widow's feet out from under her, and it was a testament to how badly she was injured that the Widow didn't even try to evade his attack.

It was in that moment that Thor rejoined the fray. He slammed into Loki, but his dark brother pushed back with equal fervor. "You will never win so long as I draw breath," Thor growled, locked as he was with Loki.

"Then perhaps we shall remedy that," Loki replied, and a fierce battle commenced between the brothers once more.

Jane glanced back at the machine, seeing that only about thirty more seconds remained until it was fully ready for shutdown. She looked down to see Natasha dragging herself backwards towards Jane, one elbow pulling her across the graveled rooftop. "Oh god," Jane gasped, "Oh god, oh god. Agent Romanoff, I'm so sorry. What can I do?"

"Help me up," she ground out in reply, and she held out a hand. Jane grasped it and pulled, and to Jane's utter shock and horror, Natasha still managed to stand, uttering loud Russian curses the whole way. She wavered on her feet briefly, but she remained standing. Jane stood close to her side, making sure she didn't fall.

The computer beeped behind them. "Looks like we're ready," Jane said.

The fight between the brothers was closely matched, but Thor was clearly the stronger warrior of the two, and Loki was clearly more injured. One final blow with Mjolnir upon Loki's scepter drove him to his knees.

There was no mercy in Thor's eyes as one more time he brought the hammer forged in the heart of a dying star down upon Loki. The other Odinson fell, hitting the rooftop on his back.

Thor placed a foot on Loki's shoulder, and pressed down as he yanked the scepter from his grasp. The shoulder must have been injured and Loki cried out in pain as the scepter was pulled from him.

She thought she saw sadness and tortured love reflected in Thor's eyes before he laid Mjolnir on top of Loki. Setting aside the scepter, Jane saw him withdraw what looked like very intricate handcuffs, layered with different metals and seemed to have hundreds of different moving parts as they were locked around Loki's wrists.

The next item Thor pulled from parts unknown was something that looked like a collar, and very closely resembled the manacles. "I am so sorry, brother," Thor said, voice heavy with regret and acceptance.

"You are not my brother," were Loki's last words before the metal parted and molded itself to Loki's face, completely covering his mouth and silencing anything he'd been about to say.

Thor turned from Loki, leaving him bound and gagged, and picked up the scepter. He walked toward Jane and Natasha with the face of the warrior back in place.

Natasha stepped forward, inasmuch as she was able and took the scepter from him. "Make sure we-ugh-aren't interrupted," the Widow said.

Jane tried to place a hand on Thor's arm, a cold comfort in the middle of a war, but it was at least something. He didn't return the gesture, but he offered a tight-lipped smile in thanks.

"I can close it," she said as Thor turned from Jane to scan the skies for errant Chitauri dumb enough to try to stop them. Even without Mjolnir, he could do a lot of damage. "Can anybody-" a shaking breath "-copy? I can shut the portal down."

A few seconds later, Natasha swore again.

"What? What's the matter?" Jane asked worriedly. She'd done all she could for the situation at hand, and now she just had to wait. Waiting did not sit well with her. She wanted to do, to act, to help, and she couldn't.

"The goddamn World Security Council is-hm-sending in a nuke to blow the damn city."

And suddenly, Jane realized that she was well and truly going to die. She'd embraced the fact coming into the battle that her mortality would be a factor, and in doing this she might lose her life, but it was one thing to accept dying and another thing to face it head on.

"But- this is Manhattan. This is New York City! They can't do this!"

Agent Romanoff was silent for a few beats, "Stark is intercepting-ugh-the missile. He's going to-hm-shoot it right into space. Blow the Chitauri base-hm-straight to hell," she breathed, and there was a note of admiration in her voice. "That asshole. He's going to-hm-lay on the damn wire," Natasha said hotly, clearly referencing something Jane had no idea about.

Time seemed compressed into the span of a few seconds then-Iron Man shot up Stark Tower, nuke on his back, and into the blackness of outer space. Natasha held the scepter aloft, and all eyes were fixated on the portal opening.

The great flash of the nuclear explosion forced Jane to blink and look away, despite having wanted to see a nuclear blast in action since before she could remember. There wouldn't be a mushroom cloud, she knew. It would probably be spherical in nature, given the gravity variables in place. Everything raced through her mind at once, but at the forefront as she waited with bated breath was the absolute need to see the red suit of Tony Stark to appear once again. Even though she didn't know him personally, it suddenly seemed as though everything in her life hinged on him coming back through with his bravado and genius intact.

Jane then noticed the Chitauri falling out of the sky, a blue spark lighting in their bodies before they simply plummeted downwards. "Where is he?" she asked quietly, hating how small her voice was but unable to care too deeply about it.

"Come on, Stark," Jane heard Natasha murmur.

Jane saw the exact moment whoever was on the other side of Natasha's comm give the order to close the portal. Her face lost it's hopeful look, and she became terse and determined.

She didn't seem to be in much pain as she forced the scepter through the energy barrier, but Jane guessed she was good at hiding her pain. The moment the blade touched the crown, the energy shooting upwards halted. No explosions, implosions, or any fanfare. The stable shutdown was a success.

The window began to seal itself, the two points in space uncompressing.

Jane felt as though the breath had been knocked out of her. She'd just killed one last person- an extraordinary man by all accounts. And it was her fault.

The last of the blackness of Chitauri space vanished without further fanfare, but it left behind a small, red dot against the blue.

He had made it back.

Jane let out a short, startled, relieved laugh, not not at all full of mirth.  _He made it back._

"He's not slowing down," Thor then said urgently. Jane looked up, the small bubble of relief bursting in one fell swoop. "I can't-" Thor began in frustration. Mjolnir was still holding Loki down. He couldn't fly without Mjolnir.

"We can't lose anyone else today," Jane said, knowing that she was pleading and too far gone to care. "Thor-" She turned her pleading eyes to him, not knowing what she was asking for but asking all the same.

Free-falling, Tony was almost at the tops of the buildings. Thor would have to act fast. And then, just as he was stretching his hand to call Mjolnir away from Loki, a loud roar preceded a giant green blur grabbing Iron Man out of the sky.

The Hulk had saved him. Clinging to building sides regardless of the damage he was causing, the huge alter-ego of Bruce Banner roughly but effectively slowed the fall, and landed in a similar fashion of how Thor had landed with Jane.

Black Widow caught Thor's eye moments later. "You need to get down there. If-hm-Stark's trapped in a powerless suit, you're the-ugh-only one strong enough to get it off without accidentally-hm-ripping him to shreds."

Thor's eyes flicked towards Jane, concern and worry still written in them. She was touched by his concern, and wanted nothing more than for him to stay with her. But without hesitation, Jane pushed him towards the edge of the building. "Go. Your teammate needs you."

Thor called Mjolnir from Loki, who still made no moves to get up. Thor walked over to his brother, yanking him to his feet by the manacles securing him. "He is not entirely harmless. We must take pains to make sure he cannot get off this rooftop. Your machine is completely harmless now?" He asked Jane.

She nodded, and Thor moved to secure the manacles to the machine, "Tesseract's safe too, as long as he doesn't rip through the machine. Even then, that would take a while, judging by the strength he has-"  _Why would I know that?_ The specs of her machine were a no-brainer, but knowing Loki's average strength? Knowing how the adamantium and vibranium parts of the machine would hold up to it? She pushed the knowledge to the back of her mind, ceasing her wonderings about what other knowledge she had left over from her stint under Loki's control. "It's fine. Go."

Thor obviously knew how to bind his enemies without them escaping, as he managed to secure Loki to a small offshooting piece of adamantium, and then used Mjolnir to hammer it into place.

Thor then flew off, down towards where Steve and Hulk were gathered around Tony.

Agent Romanoff turned slowly to Jane. "Now, how the hell do we get off this building?"

* * *

They left Loki on the rooftop, ordering JARVIS to keep him locked up there no matter what, and to notify them if he made any attempts at escaping. Jane steadfastly refused to look at him. JARVIS got them back to the ground floor, and Jane kept stealing glances at the injured Natasha, who kept refusing Jane's offers of help (not that she would entirely know what to do; but she could help her walk or something. Anything to not feel so useless.)

She didn't appear to be too badly wounded, or going into shock from what she remembered from the few nursing classes she'd taken when she'd nearly let the naysayers persuade her from astrophysics. The Black Widow wasn't walking upright, hunched slightly to the side as she had been before, but this time she made no move to straighten herself. She had a slight limp, but that could be from the imbalance of weight because of the lean. Most of her body was a mystery, hidden as it was by her suit. One of her arms was curled into her torso, a natural reaction for an injury, but Jane thought she remembered hearing a snap from it earlier. Her face was battered, her mouth bloodied, and the bruising starting to show through in soft purples and reds that would be full-blown in a few hours. The bruising on her neck was already deep purple and darkening. Jane hoped none of the internal structures were damaged, but it was a weak hope. She noticed her white pallor, and worried about what that meant.

As they exited Stark Tower, Jane noticed Natasha's hands shivering slightly. "Are you okay?" Jane asked, again, and to no avail. Her fingers nervously played with the velcro of her kevlar vest.

Natasha didn't speak and just shot her a look that said to stop asking.

The pair made their way over to where Tony managed to stand up in his battered suit. The rest of the Avengers stood around him, including Hawkeye, whose eyes found them first.

Within the space of a second, Clint must have realized Natasha's condition was much more dire than Jane had thought. More guilt piled up as she realized how much the spy had been hiding from her. "Natasha!" yelled Clint, rushing to where Agent Romanoff had obviously lost the desire to move.

"Clint," she called out weakly, wheezing slightly. Her voice had deteriorated significantly since Jane had last heard it.

Barton ran to her side, and the other Avengers followed suit behind him, realizing that one of their team members was not okay. Barton arrived at her side just as she collapsed, her legs seemingly not wanting to function any more. Clint caught her, dropping to his knees without coming to a full stop first. "Hey, hey, you're okay," he assured her, eyes searching her body for wounds.

"I'm-" she wheezed, and blood spattered from her mouth, "not doing so well," she finished weakly.

Jane watched Hawkeye's face harden. "You're gonna be just fine. Remember Tunisia? So much worse than this," he said with a false air of joviality.

Natasha tried to laugh, but it ended in more weak, bloody wheezing. "I dragged you... out of there-" her voice dropped suddenly as she struggled to take in a breath. "Told you not-" she tried again, but failed soon after.

"Don't talk, Nat, okay? Just focus on breathing for me, yeah?" Hawkeye encouraged, still searching for injuries.

Natasha seemed oblivious to the rest of the world except for the man who held her down on the ground. She was pale and shaking, and Jane didn't know how she hid her injuries so well before.  _Probably waiting for that one last person she needed to see._ Jane thought.  _Strong for all the wrong reasons,_  a voice sneered in her head. It sounded like Loki.

She was so past caring whether she was remembering things he said or if she had developed spontaneous schitzophrenia. She just wanted this to be over. She wanted Natasha to be okay. She wanted everyone to be okay. She wanted to go back and change everything, but she couldn't do that. She has to deal with the circumstances set before her, something her dad had always told her.

She was really and truly drifting if she was thinking about her father.

Natasha and Clint had begun to have a conversation in Russian, and Jane couldn't comprehend the words, but she could understand their meaning by their tones.

"Я думаю, что я собираюсь идти спать теперь," Natasha said sleepily.

Hawkeye replied fiercely, "Нет, вы не можете оставить меня."

Natasha's eyes were drooping dangerously low. "Hey, hey, hey," Clint said, his volume increasing, "Natasha, stay with us, come on." He looked at Steve, "We need a Med-evac,  _now_."

Thor had been standing next to Jane, a protective hand on her shoulder. "It will not arrive fast enough," he said, hovering beside Jane for one last moment before gliding down next to the pair. Clint shifted a few inches away from Thor, not enough to truly keep Natasha from him, but enough to convey some manner of distrust. "We are shieldbrothers, Clint Barton," Thor said, low and calm, "We put our lives in each other's hands. Natasha is my shieldsister. I must do all I can to save her."

He didn't know if he could muster the magic again. He remembered the feeling well enough, but he knew there were limits on magic, and he didn't know if he had used all of his on Jane.

"Я не хочу, чтобы. Я хочу остаться," Natasha muttered sleepily. Her eyes were closed and no amount of shouting from Hawkeye prompted her to open them again.

"We are running out of time," Thor stated, voice now taking a sense of urgency. He would never do against his teammate's will, but he needed to at least  _try_  to make up for the damage Loki had done.

Clint only took another moment's pause before he carefully shifted Natasha off his lap, and sent a pleading look Thor's way. "Can you save her?"

Thor breathed out a sigh. "I will do my best."

He set aside his hammer, which had his own blood dripping down the handle. Natasha still lived- her breathing was shallow and her heartbeat fluttered like a young bird's wings, but she still lived. She was strong, anyone who could best his brother in manipulation and stand tall against him in combat despite being so outmatched would have to be.

He placed a hand on her forehead, reminding himself of the time before war and battle damaged him. When he was still as good and pure as the beautiful woman standing behind him. He thought of his strong feelings for Jane ( _love_ ), his respect for the warrior Black Widow before him ( _admiration_ ), and his deep appreciation for his newfound friends, the Avengers, who saved Midgard this day ( _gratitude_ ). Her pushed all the darkness in him to the back of his mind, away from the golden light of the healing magic and the wonderful feelings that it fed off of.

It came easier this time, like a muscle that had been long forgotten, but now was discovered and enjoyed the flexing. He shuddered a little this time as the pull began. After all, a muscle long forgotten was bound to be sore after being worked again, and so much so in a single day.

He breathed through the discomfort, nothing compared to the pain of injuries he had endured in his life.

Thor knew it was working as he heard the shocked murmurs and awes of his teammates. He heard the snaps as all the broken bones went back into place. He felt as each wound closed, as each internal injury sealed.

It did not take long for her to be completely healed, her injuries not being as extensive as Jane's had been, yet no less life-threatening.

When it was finished, Thor took his hand from her, falling backwards a little as the connection was broken and his magic stopped flowing. He felt a little drained, moreso than before, but any discomfort, any pain, would've been worth the look in Clint Barton's face when Natasha awoke, asking why they were all standing around looking like a bunch of idiots. "We've all got work to do," she said as she sat up without difficulty.

Thor smiled as he watched Clint Barton embrace the Widow tightly and without remorse. She returned it, despite the eyes of their team around them. The moment felt intimate, and Thor almost felt as if he were intruding as he stepped back to where Jane waited. He took her hand in his, and he felt her lean into him.

The sanctity of the moment was lost though, when Tony said incredulously, "Well fuck me sideways and call me a porn star, Thunder Cats."


	11. Blight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the aftermath of the battle, the Avengers eat shawarma, and Jane and Thor find some time to talk. However, Loki can only be held for so long, so Jane prepares herself to lose Thor to his duty once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only the epilogue after this one. Apologies for taking so long. This was meant to be out two weeks ago.
> 
> Also, theoretical astrophysics ain't my thing. Sorry for any nonsensicalness. I tried to keep it vague and simple.

Jane would like to say that she remembers after that, but she doesn't.

Everything was one giant blur, a compilation of blaring sirens, screaming people, the miasma of blood and twisted steel. Thor did not leave her after assuring that Natasha was indeed all right, and she was grateful for that.

Because everything was easier when she had his arm to hold her against him; it made looking at what had happened a little more bearable.

The demolished buildings, the crushed people, fires, lost children wandering the streets, shards of debris making the cityscape a veritable minefield took Jane in, made her really _look_ at what she had caused. Because no matter how many times Thor assured her this wasn't her fault, she knew it was.

She threw up at least three more times before they finally made their way over to where the Quinjet would pick up Jane and the non-flying Avengers. Thor held her hair away from her face, and rubbed his hand up and down her back wordlessly.

The quinjet arrived and this was only time that anyone was able to drag Thor away from her. She was almost tempted to bring him with her. Almost. As comforting as his arm had been, she couldn't stomach the thought of him sitting in on her no-doubt invasive medical exam that was coming for her. Unfortunately, she didn't have the willpower to actually tell him "go away."

Fortunately, all of the Avengers gave it a go, but in the end it was only when Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff both jointly talked to him that he agreed to leave her side. (At first, Tony made a few obscene jokes about Thor wanting to hammer his girlfriend or something along those lines, which nearly got him a fist in his face courtesy of the God of Thunder. Only Bruce managed to talk Thor out of that course of action. Hawkeye tried logic-ing Thor to come, "Hey, we just saved the damn world, let's go celebrate." "Just give Jane, like a half an hour and we'll go get some shawarma." Steve coaxed. In the end, it was Natasha's stern, "Give the girl some time, okay? You don't own her." She grabbed his arm and pulled, "We'll keep you occupied.")

After Thor was pulled away by his cajoling teammates, but before Jane was flown off, Natasha broke away from the group and gave Jane probably the most direct, almost cutting look she'd ever been on the receiving end of. "Do you need someone to go with you?" she asked, a bit haltingly as if she herself was unsure what her course of action should be.

Jane was touched by the gesture. It was only after Jane had thanked her and turned her down as graciously as she could manage that Jane realized exactly why the much-feared Agent Romanoff had offered to come with her.

The same reason why they always ask women who were victims of sexual violence if they'd rather speak with a female officer.

The medical exam room Jane was placed in was darker than she'd thought it would be. You always see the bleached white color on television, and every time Jane had been in a hospital, white had been the primary color. Now a multitude of grays and blacks were the norm, but that didn't mean the lights shining above were any less harsh.

The doctor came in not long after she'd changed from her clothing into one of those shapeless gowns, and she missed his name. He had dark skin and carried an accent that definitely sounded foreign, though she wasn't at all sure where from.

He asked her questions, and she answered them robotically, not quite hearing her own voice. Blood type. Allergies. Drawing blood now, is that okay?

He poked and prodded and Jane could only exist.

Would you rather have a female doctor for the next part of the exam?

There it was.

When someone has gone through the trauma that you've experienced, it will be necessary to perform a full pelvic exam and also a rape kit.

Jane nodded, and a new doctor came in. Jane missed her name, too.

Lie back on the table, put your feet up.

It was all rather uncomfortable, but nothing she couldn't handle.

When the doctor was done, and gave her a new set of clothing, she told her the results, and Jane did her best to drag her head up and out of the fog it had descended into.

"You aren't showing any signs of rape. No bruising, abrasions, avulsions, or other markers of violent sexual activity. We performed the rape kit, but we will not have any results for another 24 hours; and given the... unique biology of your supposed assailant, it might be more complicated than a few tests."

Jane absorbed the information, feeling herself lifting further from the fog. So Loki hadn't raped her. Supposedly. It was a relief to think so, but there was no confirmation yet. No evidence of _violent_ sexual activity. God, remembering how she was under his spell, she might have been putty in his hands. She fought him; she was there for the science and to get back at _Thor_ , not anything else. But who knew how powerful Loki was? He could've done anything he wanted to her and then buried the memories or erased them or whatever the hell an evil man with magic does.

( _It made her so, so sick to think that under his influence she might have given him consent to have sex with her. He might've made her beg for it._ )

Instead of voicing any of this, Jane only asked, "So you'll let me know when you have the results?"

"Yes."

"Am I done now?"

"Yes. However, you will be contacted about a full psychological evaluation in the near future."

Well, she'd have to bite the bullet when the time came.

The extra clothing she was given was a female SHIELD officer uniform like the one she'd seen Commander Hill and several other female officers wear, the one with the pants instead of the skirt.

It fit well and the fabric was breathable and slid over her skin comfortably, although she wished that she could've just slid into a loose pair of sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt rather than the functionally tight uniform.

She headed out of Medical, not sure where she was going, but hoping Thor was back from his excursion with his team. She didn't have to go far- the entirety of the Avengers were waiting for her out in the waiting room.

Everyone looked precisely the same as when she'd seen them last- excepting Bruce Banner, who had replaced his tattered clothing, and Stark, who was out of the suit and into something that looked causal, but still probably cost more than a used car.

Her eyes widened, her mind sharpening in an instant. What were they all doing here?

Thor was at the forefront of all the Avengers, and when he saw her, he paced purposely towards her and swept her up in an encompassing hug. It felt like coming home.

She wanted to do more, but despite the warmth of the embrace, she felt very exposed with everyone's attention on them.

When they pulled back, it wasn't very far. She had to crane her neck pretty far to see his eyes, but she would never complain. "We must have words," he said quietly, "but not now."

She nodded in agreement, and they parted, but Thor didn't go far.

"Glad to see you're okay, Chell," Stark said, the first one to speak. "You and me need to have a chat. I could use an on-site astrophysicist."

That was huge. Not to mention unexpected. A freaking job offer from Tony Stark- or at least it sure sounded like one.

"I, uh, okay..." Because what else could she say? She didn't know of anyone who would ever turn down a job offer that came directly from Tony Stark.

She'd be a private employee for a multi-national corporation. Jane had never wanted to work for the private sector- something she'd come to believe was that knowledge is public property, and the truth shouldn't be conditional upon a company's bottom line. For as long as she had been a working scientist she'd existed on meager government funding and educational grants. It was a bare-bones budget, but Jane had learned to be frugal while still performing thorough research.

It certainly wasn't as glamorous as a higher paycheck that some of her former classmates received as they took jobs with private interests and corporate-funded think tanks, especially when her personal equipment was held together by Elmer's Glue, duct tape, and dear hope as she chased down anomalies in New Mexico, but it was her way. The job with SHIELD was certainly a change, but she had never had the illusion that it was a permanent position. (Consult on the Tesseract. Give reports. Agree to this gag order or we'll make sure your work never sees the light of day.)

But if she were to work for anyone, wouldn't it be Stark? Public superhero? And to be employed by Stark Industries- a company that had taken such a positive turn in recent years, raising the bar for corporate responsibility and public transparency, while leaving behind the thinly veiled war profiteering to focus on clean energy and technologies to improve the world.

What would he have her doing, she wondered. _Not_ that she was going to just automatically accept. Jesus, she needed to think about this later, _later._ Her deliberation only took a few seconds. "I'll agree to talk but anything else... I'll think about it."

When she saw his eyes narrow in thought she wondered if he'd get pissed she hadn't said yes right off that bat and withdraw any sort of offer he might have been thinking of making her. Those thoughts didn't last long. "Sure thing, Chell." He didn't say anything else, and instead handed her a business card that was definitely not paper and felt too heavy to be simple business stationary.

She heard Agent Barton mutter in both confusion and astonishment, "We literally just finished fighting a war and you've got business cards in your pocket."

She slid the card into one of the sleek, zippered pockets of her uniform. _Later._

As in after she'd gotten something to eat and had that uncomfortable 'what are we' talk with Thor (and sleeping was definitely pretty high on her list of priorities.)

Her emotions regarding that man were mixed right now. She wanted nothing more than to throw her arms around him and never let go, but at the same time she wanted to run away because _she wasn't good at this._

Regardless of her feelings at the moment, she'd be damned if she kept letting herself run away.

But before she did any of that, she needed to say something to all of the superheroes before her. "I just want to say thank you," she stated. Not wanting to pile her own guilt on them, she only added. "You guys really saved the world today."

She and Thor managed to dismiss themselves, and she said, "I've got quarters in the housing section of the Helicarrier. I'll show you where."

They walked in silence, not passing many other people in their trek. Those that they did pass recognized the both of them, and only a small portion let their starstruck looks onto their faces.

Upon their arrival at Jane's room, she keyed in the lock code. The light flashed green and they were granted entry. She shut the door firmly behind her.

It had only been grit and stubbornness that had kept her on her feet (and the message from Stark that kept her brain churning with possibility.)

Now, with the pressures off, she finally let it go. She sagged visibly, and she made it over to the bed and collapsed down onto it. She didn't fall backwards, no matter how badly she just wanted to curl up and sleep her problems away. As Thor sat down beside her, she was reminded of why she couldn't do just that. The implications of bed plus Thor plus her equals fun things hadn't hit her yet, considering the bed was the only seating available in the stark room.

How long had it been since she last slept? Before Loki's mind control, at least. So yes, exhausted would adequately sum up how Jane felt right now. Well, exhausted plus about thirty other adjectives that were all varying shades of tired, overwhelmed and guilty.

"Jane," Thor inquired gently, "are you well?" One of his hands tilted her gaze to meet his.

She smiled tiredly, still managing to feel touched and a bit awed that this man, this god, this hero, cared enough to ask about her well-being, to nearly carry her back to her room... and everything else. Yes, overwhelmed was another very good adjective to describe her at present. She nodded weakly, "Just... just tired." It wasn't far off from the truth, but it wasn't what she should've said. _Stop running, Jane._

"How inconsiderate of me. I'm afraid I've fought alongside Asgardians far longer than humans, and I forget that you need more rest than I."

"It's not just that... I haven't slept since... well, before Loki happened. I don't remember eating anything, either. I think the magic was keeping me going, then the adrenaline, but..."

The thought was obviously new to Thor, but his thoughts were obviously spiraling in a different direction. "I am so sorry, Jane. I'll... leave you in peace, then." She knew he didn't just mean to sleep.

He began to stand until he heard a stubborn, "No," and felt the insistence of her hands upon his shoulders. He sat back down, wondering at her reasoning. "Thor, we have to talk about us at some point, and I know it seems silly because I mean, my world was literally just attacked by aliens, and a lot of people are dead because of it, but I won't put it off because I... I care about whatever we have, Thor, and I know you do too."

"But your rest-"

"Can wait. Besides, if I clock out now, I won't wake up for a while, and I know we don't have the juice to hold your brother here for long, so you guys are going to have to beam up sooner rather than later. I'd really rather have this talk in private without knowing I'm going to lose you in the next five minutes. Or sleeping through it. So I think I can do without sleeping for another hour."

A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. "Stubborn woman," he said affectionately.

She winked playfully, surprising herself that she even had the capacity to try and flirt right now. "That's me." And since she was Jane, she dove in head first. "You said you love me. Did you mean it?"

"Of course I meant it. I do love you." He was incredibly sincere, something she had appreciated about him before she knew he was the actual Thor. He was always incredibly earnest, and despite the fact that it made him sound crazy, completely honest.

Jane took a deep breath. "Okay, sorry, I just... this whole relationship 'I have feelings' stuff kind of scares me."

This seemed to amuse Thor. "Says the valiant scientist-warrior who charged recklessly into battle with inadequate protection to save lives."

She stared a moment before laughing, "Shut up, I'm serious."

"As am I. Jane, I've naught said those words to any woman before," Thor said, eyes and posture bleeding sincerity.

"Not even your mother?" Jane asked, suddenly aware of the fact that she was deflecting and now angry at herself for doing so. Was she that emotionally crippled she couldn't handle this beautiful man telling her he loved her without making some sort of joke afterwards?

Thankfully, Thor either didn't seem to notice or he let it slide. Either way, Jane was grateful. "She doesn't count."

"Of course she does, she's a woman," Jane argued playfully. _Probably?_ The mythology she'd read hadn't been terribly consistent with who his mother was- sometimes she was named Frigg, other times, Freya, and in a couple his mother was Gaia, or literally the earth. So jeez, she was glad for his reaction. "Sorry, we were trying to be serious. Go on." _Way to redirect, Jane. Very mature._ She mentally patted herself on the back.

"I realize our courtship has been short," Thor explained, looking down at his hands in a way that was just so typical male-shyness it made Jane's heart swell. It was an unbelievable comfort to her that despite the fact that he was from a different planet, he still had mannerisms she recognized. "But once an Asgardian has found their soul mate, it usually does not take long for them to fall in love."

"Wait, wait, wait, whoa. Hold up a second, soul mate?"

"Yes, I believe you have them on Midgard as well? Or am I mistaken?"

Jane tried to find the right words, and settled with, "Well, yeah, but it's more of an urban legend or a term for people who are really good together. You made it sound like a rock-solid, this-thing-exists-everywhere type of thing." Not her most eloquent explanation ever, but she was damned tired. Thankfully, Thor seemed to understand.

"Well, it is not precisely measurable, but those who read auras in Asgard can see when a person has found their soulmate. Not everyone finds their soul mate, and can fall in love with another, but it's different. According to those who have been fortunate enough to experience it, it is as effortless as breathing and deep as any sea. It is a great love that cannot be diminished by distance or time once it has been discovered; separation can be akin to torture... I am not as gifted with words as... as others, but I know you will understand my meaning." The unexpected compliment to her intellect made her smile. "I realize it is all very... indeterminate, but it is real. The Skalds have sung songs of it, the magicians have tried to quantify it."

"So that's... us?"

Thor swallowed again, taking on the shyness she still couldn't quite comprehend she was seeing on the God of Thunder. "I would venture to say so, but if you do not feel the same... I cannot begrudge you-"

Not wanting him to doubt her feelings for him, she immediately assured, "No, Thor, I...I already told you all this stuff scares me. A lot. I've had relationships before that I thought were the real thing that just turned out to be... nothing. I've been hurt before," she said quietly, Donald Blake jumping into her mind before she can stop him.

The way he, with his dark hair and dark eyes and dimples and MD, charmed his way into her life. Settled himself so deeply into her existence she decided she loved him and would probably marry him. Then how he changed when they started to live together- his constant criticism of her. It started with her work. _I'm just wondering when you're going to give up all this silly nonsense and focus on something real. Why do I never come first? It's always your work. Wormholes, Janie? Really? What are you going to research next, the Loch Ness monster?_ (she resolved then to tell Thor just how much his words had meant when he called her 'far more clever than anyone else in this realm') Then came the pressure to quit her job, be the quiet housewife he had clearly wanted from the beginning. _Most women your age are already married with children, Janie. You can't raise our children from a science lab. You need to learn to clean our home better, Janie. Janie, Janie, Janie. You know, my mother is already iffy on our relationship, and your cooking would just push her over the edge._

Their relationship was over long before it had officially ended- she avoided him at all costs, which started by buying the camper so that she wouldn't have to drive home from her lab when she was working late. It all devolved into constant fighting and Donald trying to act like the calm, rational one and making Jane feel like the out-of-control, angry one in the relationship. It was miserable, and breaking it off and moving permanently to Puente Antiguo Jane still counts as one of the best decisions of her life.

Not only because she got away from Donald and was able to dedicate her full attention to her research, but because it eventually led her to the man sitting before her.

"I'm a scientist and I can tell you what I do know. I feel much more for you than I've felt for anyone, ever before." The emotion didn't make sense to Jane's logic-driven disposition, but his explanation of soul mates might just be the logical (if that word could even be applied) answer. (Grand ideas of syncing brainwaves, matching biological patterns, and so on rolled through her mind. Biology wasn't her speciality, but the inkling of new discovery always excited her scientist's mind.) "I wanted to say this before but I was tripping over my own feelings in my head, so the words would've just been awful." The nervousness sat in her stomach like a brick, but she knew he deserved to hear it, and she needed to get over her issues and say it, because she knew that she felt it, "So, here it is: I love you, too."

The apprehension Jane had about telling Thor those three tiny, massive words evaporated when she saw his answering grin. He was radiant when he smiled, and she didn't have any reason to stop herself from kissing him.

Their first kiss had been fraught with pent-up tension and the urgency of the goodbye- their teeth had clicked together, for god's sake, and neither had cared, trying to summon up as much feeling as possible into the one act. And really, it had worked, as Jane had worked herself half to death trying to find a way to Asgard, and clearly, Thor hadn't forgotten her, either.

Their second was better. It started slow, with Jane gently testing the waters before Thor pulled her in closer, one hand on her hip, another on her neck. It grew slightly in fervor, Thor's tongue reaching out to taste her lips. She opened them at his beckoning, and that's around the time Jane kind of lost control of what she was doing.

She moved quickly straddling his hips, knees sinking into the bed and feet not quite reaching the edge. Thor responded in kind, obviously not opposed to the development, and his arms closed around her, his hands engulfing her back.

Fuck her exhaustion, fuck her guilt, fuck the unbelievable science still parading around in her head. She just wanted to be Jane for a little while, wanted to be a woman in love with a man for a little while, and block the world out just for _a little fucking while_.

When she broke away, though, it wasn't because she was out of breath or wanted to look at his face; no, Jane broke away in a panic and with a gasp when she saw Loki in her mind, _felt his hands on her_ , felt him _telling her to want it,_ telling her that she belonged to him. "No, stop, please don't," she whispered brokenly.

"Jane?" came Thor's gentle prod, but Jane could barely hear him over the sound of another Odinson in her mind. "Jane are you well? It's okay, we do not have to-"

She quickly moved away from Thor, and scrambled to her feet, breath hitching violently when she tried to go for deep, even breaths. After a few moments, she banished Loki from her thoughts, placing a hand on her forehead; she regained control of her breathing. Now frustration was probably in the top two of her feelings at the moment. "God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She could barely open her eyes, feeling tears stinging and the flush of embarrassment in her neck and face. "I- I don't know what that was."

She heard Thor move in front of her during her mortified rambling, and she felt him pulling her hand away from her face, joining it with his own and dropping them down to their sides; with his other hand, he cupped her face. "Jane, will you please open your eyes?"

She did as he asked, meeting his and immediately feeling ridiculous. "I'm sorry I stopped. I don't know why I did that. That was my fault, and I'm so sorry," Jane rambled.

"Please stop apologizing," Thor gently interrupted. "It is no apologizing matter if you decide you do not wish for that kind of affection." He swallowed any further words he may have had, and Jane felt that there were probably more incredibly gentlemanly words he could have given her. Instead, a dark look overtook his face, and she hated the way that it aged him. "Jane, I am afraid that I must ask... Did my brother... Did Loki... Did he harm you in ways you may not be telling me?"

A delicate way of putting it. "You are asking if he raped me," Jane stated flatly, figuring if they were dealing with this, they may as well be up front about it.

The look of anguish he took then made her wish she hadn't said it. "Yes," was his choked out reply.

She looked him in the eye, desperately hoping that he saw the same sincerity she saw in him. "I am being completely honest when I tell you I don't know if he did or not. I sometimes... see or feel or remember these things that make me think maybe he did do something, but I don't actually remember it. I-well, judging from what I've heard, and I don't feel at all like he did, no pain or anything like that. Medical said that too, that there were no signs that I'd been raped, and then they did a rape kit but I won't have the results until tomorrow and that's assuming it even works because he's not human-"

Thor pulled her into an embrace rather suddenly, surprising her out of her clinical description of events. It wasn't until she felt her cheek wet upon the leather and metal of his torso did she even realize she was crying.

"What if I asked him for it?" she asked quietly, voice still clear.

"I do not understand." He didn't pull away, keeping her close to him.

It was Jane who pulled back so that she could see his face. "What if I asked him for it? I did some insane things, and he had influence over me, and he's got powerful magic... God, I built him a fucking portal so that he could invade the earth. I built him a weapon of mass destruction without a second thought.

"The more I think about it, the more I'm disgusted with it. I don't even care what he did to me- because it doesn't change the fact that _thousands_ of people are _dead_ because of me. Who's going to care that one person _might_ have been raped when thousands of families are looking for their loved ones? How many husbands and wives and kids are never going to find out what happened? That's on me, and honestly, I probably _deserved_ whatever happened, because I-"

Thor interrupted her forcefully, "No." Jane's next words were caught behind gritted teeth. "Rapers are abhorrent, and no matter what, you did not deserve anything Loki did. Jane, I've already told you that you are not at fault. No one can logically hold you responsible for something Loki did."

Jane grimaced. "Yeah, well you didn't lose anyone today."

His tone was ice. "I lost my brother."

Jane just couldn't do anything right today, it seemed. She was so disappointed- their talk had been going so well, with the "I love yous" and the talk about soul mates and being together and then she had to go and say something like that. "I- I didn't mean that-"

"I know what you meant, Jane." Thor gently reminded. After a heaving sigh and a hand scrubbed across his face, he said, "Perhaps we should close this discussion until we are both of sounder mind."

She nodded slowly in agreement, thankful that Thor seemed to take their argument in stride. "Yeah. Yeah, okay." She briefly wondered about her capacity to be discussing things rationally at the moment, but the sleepiness seemed to be holding off for the time-being. Time to get back to the better part of their conversation. "So. We're going to do this."

"This?" Thor questioned as the two resumed their seated positions on the bed.

"Um, here we call it dating. I'm guessing the closest thing you guys would call it might be courting." Thor nodded his understanding. "And before you say anything or make any more declarations to me, I think you need to explain to me what courting means in Asgard. I'm pretty sure there will be cultural differences here."

Thor nodded again, a smile tugging at his lips. "Again, your wisdom astounds me. Can you describe your own courting rituals to me? That way I can tell you how different it is in Asgard."

"I guess it's hard to explain. We do it on Midgard when we're trying to see if we love someone, I suppose. To see how compatible we are. You go out and do things together. It's generally pretty informal."

"Are there arranged marriages here?"

"In some cultures. It's not as commonplace as it used to be. We've got several feminist movements to thank for that... I'm guessing they have them in Asgard?" she asked, suddenly feeling nervous. Shit, he was _royalty._ He probably had _herds_ of eligible women (probably men, too) lined up for his choosing.

And she was just ho-hum Jane Foster. _Too plain to make a real impression and too smart to make anyone feel good about themselves._ Words she'd heard a million times in a million different ways. (And far too many times from people who she'd been in a relationship with.)

"As you say, it is certainly not as prevalent as it once was. If my father hadn't defied tradition and married my mother, I would most likely have been married to a political ally before I reached adulthood. Courting rituals differ from the common people to royalty. Courting for royalty is often a staid, stuffy affair. It involves much negotiation between our parents, and many awkward dinners meant to let the pair get to know each other. I honestly do not know all of the particulars of what transpires during the negotiations, as I never had any desire or discipline to find out what was spoken about," Thor answered.

"So I take it you almost had some arranged marriages?" Jane asked, saying to hell with her hesitation.

"I did. Only one, and it turned out disastrously. I'd befriended a Lady, named Kelda. She is a master of politics, and has some of the finest education in the Nine Realms. She's sharp-witted, blunt and refused to take no for an answer. Much like Loki, actually, if a bit less conniving," Jane almost felt jealous, but Thor spoke of her just as he'd fondly spoken of his brother all those years ago under the New Mexico sky. "My family and the Realm was eager to see me married to their future queen, so they rushed into courting negotiations. It was many years ago, now, but it fell apart because neither of us had any desire to marry each other. She's an ambassador, now. She does well at it, and I'm glad we never married for she'd never would have been able to take the position if we had. After that, I don't think my father ever wanted to force me into a marriage as he had been, so he settled for pushing me in the direction that he believed would be best."

Jane was again struck by how _old_ he was. He had thousands of years under his belt. She had just under three decades.

His quiet laugh snapped her from her introspect as he said, unprompted, "Odin was actually quite the rebel in terms of an average courtship. He had been arranged to marry a crown princess of Vanaheim, wedding planned and all. He traveled there, it was his last visit before the wedding commenced. There wasn't really much done in terms of courting; there were the official visits, of course- it made the public excited about the match, and gave the betrothed a chance to learn at least something about each other before they became husband and wife.

"So my father arrives with as much fanfare as he could possibly have. He always arrived with a large entourage, and in a public place. As it would happen, he'd landed right in the middle of the celebration of the Festival of Light; a period of time when the Vanir celebrate the changing of their seasons from spring to summer. There is often much public celebration, with parades and balls and feasts. It is a wonderful time to be in Vanaheim.

"So he lands quite literally in the midst of a street fair, and everyone in his party on horseback and nearly trampling over a group of children who were performing a dance. My mother was there amongst the crowd. It seemed every single person there that day was far too afraid of the repercussions of yelling at royalty," he chuckled then, a warm and wonderful sound, "Except for the Lady Frigga."

Jane couldn't help but love the way he told the story. His face and voice gave it such body; it was obviously a story he'd heard many times, and one he loved very much. It warmed her heart to see his face alive with a different kind of love. "My mother was a Duchess of Vanaheim's capital province, so she was by no means a commoner, but her family was far from the throne, at least thirtieth in the line of succession. She always loved to celebrate amongst the people. 'This is the heart of the realm, as the ruled far outnumber the rulers,' she tells me.

"Before my father could even begin to consider making an apology, my mother was upon them like Helfire. Father always says that no matter how many wars he's fought, he'd never been so scared for his life." Jane laughed with Thor on that one.

"It wasn't long after that they realized they were in love, and much to my grandfather's disappointment, my mother and father wed before they could force him into marrying his betrothed princess."

Jane had a feeling that there was more to the end of the story, but she wouldn't press. "Your mom sounds like quite the character."

Thor gave her another brilliant smile. "She is. She will adore you."

"I-wi-will she?" Jane sputtered.

"Absolutely. And... I'd very much like it if you came to Asgard."

"Me? In Asgard? With your parents?" Her voice has risen half an octave.

He nodded enthusiastically. "You would love it there, Jane. You could study much of our magic and see how it translates into your science."

Oh yeah, this man knew _exactly_ what her hot button was. "And I could see the Bifrost?"

"Yes."

The wormhole generator. Holy hell. "Awesome."

"So you will come?"

She nodded eagerly, "I'd love to-" she cut herself off, coming to a few realizations. "Er, well, whenever you want me to. I imagine Loki will have to be dealt with, and your parents... oh my god your parents are a king and a queen. I'm going to have to meet them. That's something I'd have to do, right? I know that's something you have to do on Earth, but I don't know all the particulars of Asgard courting. What if I do something wrong? What if I disrespect them and then I'm banned from Asgard for life? I have so much I want to see-"

"Jane-"

"-and study, and looking at the Bifrost would take up ten _lifetimes_ , and that's not even considering the rest of the magic-"

" _Jane,_ " he repeated, successfully getting her attention.

Her eyes widened, and she quickly added, "Oh, and of course Asgard is your home and if I was going to be banished or whatever it would be bad because I couldn't see you either, unless you came down to Earth-"

"Jane, I don't think you need to panic."

She let out a breath, realizing that her thoughts were getting away from her. "Yeah, you're probably right. God, I shouldn't be thinking about this right now. I am absolutely not rational enough to be thinking about this kind of thing."

"You've sounded quite rational to me, love."

She warmed at that, and then said softly, "I like it when you call me that." She was beginning to realize just what her sleep deprivation was doing- she felt hazy, and almost drunk in a way that lowered her inhibitions to the level where she would say ridiculous crap like what she just said.

Thor, however, seemed pleased, and answered by placing a soft kiss on her forehead. "Sleep, love. I know you need it."

She nodded, not putting up much of a fuss because god this bed had started looking so inviting and soft and irresistible about five minutes ago. "Stay with me?" she asked in a small voice, half-hoping that he hadn't heard. ( _It was new for her to need somebody._ )

"Always," he answered, and the two wedged themselves onto the small bunk, managing to spoon together in the small space.

Despite the tight fit, it was the most comfortable Jane had felt in a bed in a long time.

* * *

Thor awoke several hours later, very conscious of Jane in his arms.

They hadn't drifted very far apart during their slumber simply because they had nowhere to go on the small bed. Thor hovered a few inches from Jane's back, as she'd turned towards the wall and seemed to be trying to mold herself into it in her sleep. She kept a hand on him though, with one hand reached back behind her and resting comfortably on his thigh.

It took him a few moments to realize what had awoken him- a knocking on the door of his quarters.

Jane slept on, and continued to do so even as he moved to gingerly answer the door.

Behind the door was the Black Widow, now changed into an undamaged uniform.

Seeing her reminded him abruptly of the healing magic he'd used, a topic he and Jane hadn't acknowledged so it had been at the back of his mind.

"Loki is asking for you," she told him. He could discern no emotion from her face.

"You removed the gag," he stated. If Loki had the capacity to speak, they'd managed to remove the device when they'd brought him and Jane's machine aboard. "That is unwise." Unwise, but Thor wouldn't criticize it. The gag was a last resort, one that Thor had hoped he wouldn't have to use. It was the ultimate dishonor to see a magician without their capacity to speak.

She replied, "Despite what you believe, SHIELD does have the capacity to give our prisoners rights. And Loki would like to have a word with you."

 _Of course he would._ He cringed at the thought of having to face the new man inside his brother's skin. And as much as he would likely regret giving into Loki's request, he would do it. ( _Despite everything, deep within himself, he held out a hope that his brother would return to him._ ) "I will do as you say, though you must return the muzzle to me." _  
_

Natasha nodded in acquiescence, and added, "We also need Foster. She needs to start breaking down what the hell kind of science she used to make that portal. All of our scientists, plus Stark and Banner, can't make heads or tails of what she's got written down."

He wished that he could let Jane rest some more, but he knew she would not mind being awoken prematurely for science.

* * *

"Did you visit your little pet?" Loki's voice was venom behind the glass of his prison cell.

It was nowhere near as formidable as the one he'd been held in before, but with the enchanted manacles and Mjolnir weighing those manacles down to the ground, Loki was barely more than a simple threat. He could be held in one of the less fortified cells.

Thor decided not to answer.

"Of course you did. I can see the weak marks of a woman all over you."

"The Black Widow said that you had something to tell me. Do not pander, Loki."

"Oh, but the pandering is all the more fun. Tell me, Thor, how was you little mortal in bed? Was she as terribly uncooperative as she was when I had her?"

His fists tightened. "Do not make me gag you again."

Loki laughed, close to hysteria. "Did Odin command you to bring the muzzle? I always knew the old man despised me, but it just seems a bit much." He jangled his restraints. "He's already rendered me powerless. What else could I possibly do?"

"You continue to treat me as a fool-"

"As I should," Loki interrupted, but Thor did not cease speaking.

"-but I know your powers Loki. Odin has dampened them, nothing more. I'm sure you could still perform simple spells if you wished."

Loki spoke as though he hadn't heard him, "I can feel Mother's spellwork in this, as well. Much more refined than Odin's."

"She told me that you would be unable to hurt anyone with your magic as long as you wore those chains. You should know that our mother took great pains to assure that you were returned home alive."

"That woman was not my mother."

"If we are measuring motherhood by whether you were birthed from her. But don't deny that you and she share a bond that she and I did not. In that regard, she is almost more your mother than she is mine."

Loki pursed his lips, and Thor was able to wonder if he'd perhaps struck a chord in his brother. "I called you down here to request that you remove Mjolnir." Or perhaps not. "Sitting like this is most tiresome. I would like to be able to explore my quarters inasmuch as I am able to," he said with a wry grin.

"No."

He seemed disappointed. "No more words for me, Thor? No more weeping for your long-lost brother?"

"I've given up trying to find the man I once knew."

"I would say that is a wise decision, but you forget that it is me who is the God of Lies. I know you hold out hope that the brother who let you hold him back, the brother who let you nigh upon abuse him will come back, and you are set to be disappointed."

"Loki-"

"No, it is your turn to listen, now. I have grown in my exile and realized exactly what I am. I am a God amongst dull creatures, and you are possibly the dullest of them all. Although I did get some joy from nearly killing the Widow woman. She was a farce, and insolent in the worst of ways. Although, breaking her mortal body was not nearly as much fun as I had from taking your woman against her will."

Thor wasn't unused to Loki's insults, but insulting two women he held in the highest regard struck him deeply, and he felt his temper arising. "I will not remove Mjolnir. You knew I wouldn't. You just wanted to gloat over... what, exactly? Perhaps you hadn't noticed, Loki, but you _lost._ The mortals _defeated you._ They destroyed your army and captured you. On the field of battle, we call that a stunningly thorough defeat. When we return to Asgard, you punishment will be harsh. You've tried to destroy two realms, Loki." He leaned closer to the glass, as close as he could get without touching it. "And you've failed each time."

A look that was neither cruel indifference nor perverse delight crossed Loki's face. It actually appeared to be something like disappointment and hurt. It was gone before Thor could even be sure he'd seen it at all.

Thor backed away from the cell, planning on leaving. He didn't feel any satisfaction from what he said. In fact, he felt much worse that he had when he'd arrived.

His anger was spiraling out of his control, and his fists hadn't unclenched since he'd entered the room.

He turned to go, uncrossing his arms and trying to relax.

He should've known Loki wouldn't let what he said go without throwing his own poison words.

"You should have heard her scream," Loki said. "It was like a wounded animal. She was so bruised and bloody afterwards, I thought I'd killed her. I know healing magic, so I wasn't concerned. And then I took her again, and tried to make her look even more brutalized than before. I crushed her bones, made her bleed in ways that-"

Thunder could be heard rumbling through the skies and through the Helicarrier. The electricity in the air from the storm he'd created in his anger surged through him and made him feel invincible. The storm had turned on Loki. Spinning and heading back for the cell, Thor punched through the glass. A blaring alarm sounded, but Thor was deafened to it. He called Mjolnir off Loki's restraints so that he could grasp him hard around the throat and then pull him through the shattered wall. Slamming the God of Lies to the ground, Thor drew out the enchanted muzzle.

"She will die Thor, whether by my hand or by time, but she will die. And the only woman whose heart you've ever longed for will be gone-" Whatever else he was going to say was smothered by Thor forcing the muzzle onto his face, with far more force than was necessary.

As SHIELD security guards flooded the hall, Thor watched his brother's eyes.

Despite the lower half of his face being covered, he could swear that it looked like Loki was laughing.

He was very nearly sick.

* * *

In a science lab, her machine seemed so much better, so much safer. It was an object of pure discovery and imagination rather than a tool that had been used to nearly bring about Earth's demise. It was central to the Helicarrier's largest lab, the one in the bowels of the ship and not the lighter, flashier one found near the Bridge. Tables and equipment had been shoved aside to make room for it, and it had taken a direct order from the reigning, self-dubbed 'most popular celebrity' onboard, Tony Stark, to clear away the lab techs and science officers that swarmed like insects around the machine. "I want to see what this thing looks like before SHIELD gets their hands on it and locks it away," he'd said. This left only three people in the hangar-like space: Jane, Tony, and Bruce Banner.

The Tesseract was held within some sort of Asgardian containment module that Thor had produced. It looked like some sort of glass, capped off by two golden handles. The Tesseract looked a darker blue now, but the swirling light within was anything but stationary. _It lives. It sleeps now,_ she thought assuredly. Shaking off the very worrisome interruptions of her thought process, Jane steadfastly decided to wonder what the container was made out of. Some element found on Earth? One of the predicted elements not yet observed in nature? Or perhaps it was something utterly science fiction, an element not found on Earth, and something not even Mendeleev could have foreseen?

She and her two fellow consultants were poring over everything she had written while under the spell. Countless sheafs of paper had been collected, and she honestly couldn't entirely remember where she'd left them all. Maybe Agent Barton had told SHIELD about the locations they'd used? Regardless, it was all here now, even the things that only looked vaguely familiar. A lot of it was in her own hand, some of it distinctly came from others. A good portion of it was computer-generated printouts, everything from specs to digital power readouts. She didn't think there was much of an organizational system, and she cringed for the SHIELD agents that would be tasked with organizing the papers that covered every flat surface in the room.

Despite the ridiculously numerous sheets of results and condition measurements, the mathematics she'd used and the exact specifications of the machine were in her head. A few of the important bits had been written down in her leather bound notebook- the one that still had Thor's rudimentary drawing of Yggdrasil in its pages- when she'd been having trouble working through some of the problems. As soon as she'd found it amongst the sea of paper, she hadn't let it out of her sight.

Currently, she was doing her best to explain to Tony and Bruce what she had done- their looks alternated between curious, confused, and concerned for her sanity. It made perfect sense in her own head, and she was certain that it was correct (she'd made herself a wormhole, after all), but she found that she didn't always have the best means to explain it to the two men. They were both brilliant, certainly, and she didn't know if it was the lingering affects of Loki in her head, or if this was simply unexplainable. No, she refused to believe that. She _would_ share her work, and she _would_ make some good come out of it if it was the last thing she ever did.

To be fair, it wasn't easy trying to explain theories about zero-point energy and four-dimensional concepts on what amounted to a very fancy whiteboard.

"I know you guys don't entirely understand it because you're not experts in theoretical astrophysics-"

"I resent that!" Tony interrupted.

She also had some (or one, rather) very difficult students.

She shot him a look that was identical to the one she'd worn earlier when he'd brought up his thermonuclear astrophysics cramming. "A single night of study doesn't give you the knowledge I got from nearly a decade of research and experimentation, genius IQ or not. I have one of those too, plus three degrees in this that you don't. It'd be wise to listen, Stark."

She turned back to her very fancy whiteboard, and slid her hands quickly across it downwards, clearing the holographic glass display. (When she'd first started working at SHIELD, she'd been absolutely useless with the expensive, top-of-the-line equipment.) She began crafting a rough three-dimensional shape of what she now knew was an accurate depiction of Yggdrasil without waiting for Tony's response, but she could hear a warm, quiet chuckle from Banner, and she knew she'd won his approval.

"This is Yggdrasil, the Worlds Tree." She added labels each of the planets on its branches. "What is described as a realm is technically a planet. Each one is located further than our terms can properly describe from Earth, further than any of your telescopes or cameras could ever hope to reach... at least for a very long time," she added, realizing the "your" and the haughty tone she'd taken were definitely Loki talking. "Our universe, the way it's shaped and kind of wired is almost predisposed for this kind of travel. There are these... pathways, that's the best way I can think to explain it." She hesitated to draw anything on the board, because nothing she could think to draw would adequately explain the phenomenon. "They are these pre-existing, four-dimensional connections that are completely inert on their own. They don't even exist on the same plane of existence as we do. But, when enough energy is applied to these connections, they light up like a live wire, and manifest as fully-functioning wormholes. Almost like when you made those can telephones when you were a kid- the string would hang there and nothing would pass through, but once you tightened it, you could talk back and forth.

"They almost fully encompass each realm, which is why wormhole travel is possible nearly anywhere on the planet. The ones surrounding the Nine Realms are the biggest, most tensile, usable connections." She stepped away from the board and set her sketch on slow spiral, giving up on trying to draw out a four-dimensional concept. "But there are a near infinite number of connections, not just to the primary Nine Realms we know of from Norse myth, but to any number of places deeper in space than we can even remotely imagine. I'm guessing that some of these connections might be of a nature that you could pass through them without any sort of energy engine. Shortcuts, if you will.

"But I'm getting off topic. The one I opened in New York wasn't a pre-existing connection. I had to channel to Tesseract's energy into forcing a new connection. That's why it didn't look at all like the Bifrost does."

She moved her spiraling World's Tree to the side of the board, and began to write out a few mathematical equations on the board, simplified and drawn out to help illustrate her point, but not fully explain it.

Both Tony and Bruce stared at the equations, looking one part confused, two parts impressed. Jane said quickly, "It's not... it's a bit hard to explain because the physics used in this thing literally doesn't exist here yet, which is why more than half of my notebook is pretty much nonsense."

Bruce asked, fiddling with his glasses, "But is there a way that you can get us at least the starting points? Something like using Earth's physics to get us to the point where you started using- whatever this is."

Jane nodded vigorously. "Absolutely. It'll take a while to fully write out, but I've got all the concepts in my head," she said. _Along with whatever Loki left behind in there._ That was something she was not thinking about now. Probably not even later.

"This'll put you up for a Nobel easily. And you'll win, uncontested," Tony pointed out.

Despite going a million miles an hour, it seemed, for so long on so little sleep, the thought had crossed her mind. And then crossed it again several more times. It was _everything_ she'd dreamed of, not just as a professional scientist, but as a kid who would look up at the stars and want to know all the secrets the cosmos hadn't revealed yet. She couldn't stop the smile from appearing. It was one thing to think that she could win it, and it was another to have that hope confirmed by someone else.

"Not just the Nobel," Bruce added, "If I'm understanding this even halfway, then this will change _everything_."

She nodded again. "Exactly. The way we teach physics, our relation to the universe at large, countless unexplained phenomena..." Jane trailed off. "Honestly, I'm still reeling from all the possibilities that this could uncover. The nature of light, and time, and gravity, and energy, and not to mention the technology that could be gleaned from what's here."

As their discussion grew more lively, the excitement in the room became palpable. The very fancy whiteboards were becoming full of equations, new theories, and designs for new technology. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed commiserating with people who shared her same passion for discovery, the same thirst for knowledge. Consulting was all well and good, but it was nothing compared to what they were doing now. This must be what a true revolution felt like, Jane imagined.

It was probably the best she had felt in a long time.

* * *

The need for nourishment necessitated a few plates of food to be sent down to them, and full mouths had slowed their conversation, but it hadn't dampened the mood in the least.

At some point, Thor and Natasha had joined them.

The Black Widow eyed the boards with interest, saying something about needing to distill this and put it into a report. Despite her cool tone, Jane could see that on some level, Agent Romanoff was far more than professionally curious. There was a deep intelligence in her, and Jane was struck with how grateful she was that Thor had been able to save her.

Jane smiled at him, and while Thor returned it, there was something dark in his eyes that told her the talk with his brother had probably gone south very quickly.

She wanted to ask him about it, but it felt like something that needed to be talked about in private. She didn't think they'd be getting any more opportunities for that.

Soon the food was gone and the science conversation picked up again, but this time with a specific goal in mind. "The device built for the Tesseract is rudimentary," Thor explained. "It will get two back to Asgard, but only from a small number of places on your world."

This made immediate sense to Jane, who nodded along. "Like one of the pre-existing connections," she said quietly, almost as though the thought had slipped out without her intending to say it. Louder this time, she said, "I'd just have to figure out which ones would function with whatever kind of energy and how much of it this thing can put out."

With a specific purpose in mind, Jane worked like a hurricane, falling into a leadership position as she ordered Tony and Bruce about. "Bruce, can you calibrate all satellites to detect roentgen radiation as well as," she snagged a thin printout, "these gravitational anomalies?" She turned to the other superhero-turned-lab-assistant. "Can you do a full workup of the energy transference on the containment module?"

With her brain soaring with new scientific knowledge and possibility, it was easy to forget everything that had happened.

She was at peace.

Thor was so glad.

* * *

Before they left the Helicarrier, Jane made sure to ask someone to find out if the soldiers escorting her had made it.

They had.

They'd followed her into Stark Tower after she'd gotten away from them, but JARVIS hadn't let them past the lobby. The only reason they hadn't tried to get to her was because SHIELD had directly reached into National Guard protocol and called them off.

They were all unharmed.

Beltre who had driven her into the city. Velasquez who had given her a hair tie. She hadn't even learned the names of the other three and they'd risked their lives for her.

She told Thor she'd be right back, and then she locked herself in a bathroom and wept.

* * *

As it happened, the ideal location for sending Loki and Thor back to Asgard was right in the middle of Central Park. Everything matched up, and the fourth-dimensional pathway was the most conducive to the device containing the Tesseract. She'd run the numbers at least five times. If she calculated anything wrong, she knew that Thor could be torn apart in transit and _that_ was absolutely not going to happen. Not on Jane's watch, not when she could do something about it. He constantly assured her that he trusted her absolutely, and that her intellect wouldn't fail him.

The procedure included clearing the park, and setting a tight police and SHIELD perimeter around the location. It was probably more involved than even Jane knew, because transporting a war criminal and prince of an alien planet was probably a delicate process.

(Jane would never know that there were seven thwarted attempts on Loki's life. There were also six attempts on the lives of the Avengers- two on Clint Barton, two on Natasha Romanoff, and four on Thor- that were halted and the perpetrators arrested before anything went amiss. She would eventually find out about those last six.)

The Avengers hadn't been required to come, but they all showed up anyway, each one of them looking significantly less "super," and Jane could tell that Thor appreciated the support of his friends.

Each of the Avengers arrived on their own power, but Jane, Thor, and Loki were airlifted via quinjet. SHIELD didn't want to risk having Loki walk amongst the streets and the people he'd destroyed.

Gagged and handcuffed, Loki didn't lose any of his dark charisma. The cool intimidation still oozed off of him, along with a disturbing air of uncaring.

Jane didn't dignify him with a single response. She didn't look at him, and didn't speak to him.

She would show him that he hadn't broken her.

Inside, she hoped her calm facade was working, because a huge part of her just wanted to punch him. She probably wouldn't even hurt him, and even hating him was more effort and care than he deserved from her.

So indifference it was.

After they'd landed and both prisoner and transport were ready to leave, Thor and Jane stood a ways off from the Avengers and the few SHIELD agents that were performing the near patrol.

They stood intimately close, and the casual bystander probably could've guessed the feelings that charged their interaction.

"I will return for you," Thor said softly.

Jane responded, "Last time you said that you were gone for a year."

"Aye. That I was. I cannot promise you that I will return with as much haste as both you and I would prefer, but I promise that when I return, it will be for you, Jane Foster."

"Just keep in mind that if you don't, I might just have to build my own Bifrost and come find you myself," Jane answered.

He chuckled. "I say this with all sincerity, if anyone in the Realms could do it, it would be you, my love."

Their next kiss was soft, and though they both knew it would be their last one for some time, they didn't throw all the desperation they could into it as they had the first time they were separated. Jane wove her fingers through his hair, and held him as close as she possibly could.

They both silently prayed that this kiss wouldn't be their last.

When they pulled back, their hearts were full and ready as they could ever be for their impending separation.

"Be safe?" Jane pleaded softly.

"For you."

Then he was stepping away, taking his place beside Loki. He nodded in turn to his teammates, and reserved one last smile for Jane. That was the last image she had of him as he turned his hand, activating the Tesseract. Then he and Loki were atomizing, the blue energy sweeping upwards and back to Asgard.

Jane let out a held breath, trying not to feel the same abandonment she'd felt the first time. It was hard not to feel that deep ache in her chest, especially now that things were so much clearer between them. How he loved her, and she him, and that there was a clear intent to continue their courtship (which they unfortunately hadn't been able to fully discuss)...

However, the more things became clear, the murkier their future became.

He was a prince who would one day sit on the throne of Asgard, if her understanding of their political structure was right. Not to mention their wildly differing lifespans and respective ages.

So she would rather have him right beside her rather than simply trusting that he'd find his way back. She didn't know the exact status of the Bifrost, nor the circumstances that would surround Loki's inevitable trial. She didn't have any notions that he wouldn't keep his word, but it would certainly make her feel better if he hadn't been forced to leave again.

Her eyes lingered on the spot she'd last seen him, the air around the place shimmering for a few brief moments with the excess energy expelling; then the air stilled, the connection closing once more. It was almost as if he'd never been there in the first place.

"Hey!" She turned to the sound of Tony's voice, and she saw him and Bruce sitting in a very expensive car. "Get in, loser, we're going to do science."

Despite everything, despite the fresh crack in her heart, Jane felt herself smiling wide, and walking towards the car.

There was hope in her heart and purpose in her mind.

And Tony was certainly right.

They had science to do.

* * *

**Two Days Later**

At the edge of the Rainbow Bridge, Heimdall still stood vigil. The Tesseract's return had prompted the rebuilding of the Bifrost, and despite the planning for the reconstruction, it had not started yet. The stillness and quiet of the Rainbow Bridge hadn't yet been interrupted.

This was his favorite place in the realm, for reasons other than the wonders a silent retreat could do for the mind. He could look down Yggdrasil's trunk, see beyond her branches into the vastness of Beyond, search the endlessness of the Void, watch countless lives speeding by. It was awing and humbling to stand amongst it.

Regardless of circumstance and the tension of Loki's impending audience with Odin, he still heard the prince approach, heard him set Mjolnir down, and then: "Can you see her?"

The request was like an old friend, one the Heimdall did not at all mind entertaining. He had grown fond of the mortal that had ensnared the heir to the throne of Asgard. Though Odin might not understand it, Heimdall certainly could see that Thor had finally met his proper match. "My vision of Jane Foster has returned." He paused before saying, "She is special. More so than what the surface would have us believe. Not many would be able to accommodate the control of the Tesseract for so long. She and your archer friend have strong hearts. It has opened her mind to many of the secrets she has so long sought to reveal." Not being able to resist, he said with a wry grin, as he had not very long ago, "She searches for you."

"I doubt she searches solely for me. She has an ambition unlike any I've seen." Though his words were humble, Heimdall knew that the prince was pleased that his mortal hadn't forgotten him so soon.

Heimdall held no doubts in his mind that she ever would. Yes, he could sense the Norns had woven the tapestries of Jane Foster and Thor Odinson together for a reason.

Though his power offered him no specific insight, he knew their story was long from over.


	12. Epilogue

Just a few months after the near destruction of Manhattan and the explosion of the fame and popularity of the Avengers, Thor had returned.

She was technically out of SHIELD's employ, but it would've been naive and stupid to assume they wouldn't keep an eye on her and her work. With her expansion of Foster Theory into the Foster Theories, a rumored Nobel prize headed in her direction, and managing invites to lecture at universities around the globe, it was a small wonder she found time to work at all.

Sleeping was hard. Her dreams were filled with blood and the shaking of the earth beneath her feet and the blue glow that made her feel trapped within her own body and the darkly seductive voice of Loki in her ear.

She awoke quietly from her nightmares with naught but a quiet, sharp gasp and trembling hands. Thor wouldn't awaken with her (she didn't expect him to) but it was such a solid comfort that he was  _there_. That she could curl around his warm body in the middle of the night, his skin and heartbeat calming her shaking and heating her icy skin.

She was back in New Mexico (she denied Darcy's accusation of her being a sentimental idiot) though not in her small, converted-from-a-car-dealership-because-rent-was-dirt-cheap lab. Grant money, where it had once been scarce, had been pouring in, from both public and private enterprises. She wouldn't be surprised if SHIELD used some sort of shell company to funnel money in her direction.

The biggest (and most vocal) of her supporters was none other than Tony Stark. Despite her outright refusal to work for him, he spared no expense when he went a built a lab for her a mile outside of Puente Antiguo.

("Tony, this is ridiculous. This is too much."

"Please, Chell, this is like, pocket change. Not even. This is pocket lint."

"I don't care. I can't accept this. If I do, it's like I'll be working for you anyway."

"A guy can't do something nice for a friend?"

"'Something nice' is helping someone move to a new apartment, not building them a state of the art experimental physics laboratory!"

"Think of it this way: you consult for me all the time anyway. This is just me hedging my investments. Also, I nearly threw up when I saw that your radio frequency calibrator was held together by Elmer's glue and duct tape."

"Rude. Not all of us have a trillion dollar company at our disposal."

"Well, now you technically do. You forget, Chell, I'm a scientist before I'm a CEO."

"Pepper is your CEO."

"And she does it marvelously. Point is, my interest here is purely in the name of science. Imagine all the science, Jane!"

"... It is a nice lab."

"Damn right it is. With your brains and my money, you could probably achieve interstellar travel within the year. With all of the combined brains of the Science Super Friends we'll probably have it in a few months."

"Yeah, Bruce and I never approved that name.")

When Thor returned, it was with an invitation to come to Asgard. She was apparently the first Midgardian in recorded history to receive such an honor. Thor also mentioned offhandedly that there may be some sort of party involved. "Perhaps a better word would be a 'ball,'" he said quickly, but she caught it nonetheless. Very deliberately, he said, "I would like to present you as my consort, if that is what you wish."

"Consort? That, uh," she was about to say that it sounded kind of trashy to her Earth vernacular, but she saw the look in his eye, saw the hopefulness that lay there. "I think I'd be okay with that." He grinned contagiously, sweeping her into his arms and quite literally kissing the breath out of her (note: An alien with nearly two thousand years of experience under his belt made one  _ _hell__  of a bedfellow.)

The Bifrost  _ _alone__  made the journey worth making.

Asgard itself was another matter entirely. It was a maze that Jane never wanted to find her way out of. There was too much for her to do, to see; she felt like even if she had an eternity, she'd still be left wanting.

Anti-gravity repulsors, renewable energy, antimatter engines, also  _ _casual__  quantum field generators the size of hospital tables. God, it was like everything she'd never known to ask for all plopped down right in front of her. A few of Asgard's magicians and scholars agreed to sit down with her and discuss the complexities of magic, and hopefully help her translate some of it into Earth's science.

It hadn't originally been intended to be an all-day, most-of-the-night affair (she could tell the Asgardians had been underestimating her, which kind of irked her, but she'd dealt with it enough in her career that she barely batted an eyelash at it now.) But, as Jane proved her mettle and the Asgardians started to grow more interested in how Midgard understood the world and the universe, it became quite clear they wouldn't be finishing their talk for some time.

While she was academically thrilled, there was another, far more personal matter about which she was not so thrilled.

"I don't think I can do this," Jane said with a gulp as she gazed upon the garments she would be fitted into for this evening's affairs. The fabric of her dress was not yet sewn together ("That will happen once it's been fitted," Frigga had kindly explained) but she could tell by the rich texture and the jeweled pieces she'd caught glimpses of, it was going to be the most decadent thing she'd ever worn.

She was currently in the company of Frigga and Sif. Thor had been made to leave by Hogun to attend his training session with the Einherjar that morning, but at this point, Jane felt just as at ease with Thor's mother and best friend as she did with Thor himself. She was in front of a small mirror; Frigga was behind her, brushing her hair (something that Jane knew for a fact that was usually done by a servant, and she'd realized that Frigga was doing it as a comfort to Jane. It made something in her chest twist in the most delightfully painful way.) while Sif sat to her left.

"Nonsense," Sif insisted. "If  _ _I__  can excel at a night's worth of courtly dress, conversation, and revelry, I'm beyond certain that you're more than capable of the same feat."

Jane grumbled. "At least you were born here and know what is and is not a social faux pas."

Frigga laughed warmly. "It would surprise you how many of Midgard's customs coincide closely with our own."

"Two-thousand years ago, maybe."

Frigga said, "You worry yourself over small matters. You won't simply be regarded as Thor's consort, but as a guest from a foreign realm. Most of our guests are well-conditioned in accommodating unfamiliar cultures."

Sif shrugged. "If all else fails, just copy whatever I do and you'll be just fine."

Frigga started to pick through Jane's hair, loosely positioning it and contemplating the results.

Sif added, "At least we know Thor will be thrilled with whatever you do. He was so distracted this morning during training, I think I beat him in record time."

Frigga smiled. "It's not hard to spot a man in love."

Jane was fairly certain her blush matched the fabric of the dress.

It took Frigga no time at all to fashion her hair into an elegant updo, and Jane's eyes were riveted on the Queen of Asgard's hands. They sparked with golden magic that danced across Jane's scalp in warm, but foreign prickles.

Frigga noticed Jane's stare and asked, "Magic is not common in Midgard, is it?"

"Not that kind," Jane admitted.

"Household magic such as this is fairly common," Frigga explained, "But to perform larger, more complex spells requires years of study and great natural ability. It took years for Thor to learn how to summon Járngreipr, and Loki just as long to learn projection."

Just a few moments later, the Royal Seamstress (they have a goddamn  _ _Royal Seamstress__ ) entered the chambers, and despite Jane's burning curiosity about magic, now was not the time to ask questions. (She could ask Thor later.)

How long Jane stood there as the Seamstress magically pinned and trimmed fabric under Frigga's watchful eye and Sif's obvious boredom she did not know, but when Frigga told her to turn around, all the thoughts of her achy feet and bored mental wanderings ceased.

Jane was far from ignorant about her own appearance, but when she turned around, it was like staring at a different person. The scarlet dress they'd fit her in draped over her body, more flattering than anything she'd ever worn. The rich fabric was the same color as Thor's cape, and Jane could only imagine that this was done intentionally. Clear jewels encrusted the nipped in bodice, accentuating her waist. The design was just Asgardian enough to show her status, but was clearly crafted with Midgardian fashion in mind to display her origins.

The only thing she could say in that moment was, "I didn't know Asgard was big on the hourglass figure thing too," as she ran uncertain hands down her sides.

Both Frigga and Sif looked confused. Sif asked, "Hourglass figure?"

"It's a—it's just a thing a lot of women of Midgard really want. I sort of forget I have it, honestly."

"Ah, I see," Frigga answered. "The Seamstress merely wished to best accentuate your unique features."

"Oh," Jane said quietly.

"We have many guests from many realms," Frigga continued, "You are a prime example of Midgardian beauty and intelligence. I can think of no better representative for your realm."

"Whoa, whoa, hold up a second. Representative? I didn't—I didn't know this was that big of a—" Oh god, yeah she did. Thor had told her about the event, it just hadn't really registered until now just  _how big_ of a deal it was. "Oh. I'm flattered, but there are so many different kinds of people on Midgard, I'm hardly a fair representation."

"Understood, but perhaps your example will lead the way for other Midgardians to pay us a visit," Frigga suggested.

Jane was hit with a sledgehammer of self-doubt. Representative of Midgard.

Oh god.

* * *

He hadn't seen his father since Loki's sentencing. Thor got the distinct feeling that Odin was avoiding him, so it was a bit of a shock to see his father waiting on the balcony above the Einherjar training grounds when he finished for the day.

"The newest recruits are looking promising," Odin said in greeting.

"Father," Thor said stiffly.

"Those in the employ of Asgard's library haven't stopped raving about your Midgardian."

"She is far more clever than most of Asgard."

"Then it's a shame she was born in such an immature realm."

Thor didn't miss the condescension in his father's tone. "Need I remind you of the most recent heroic exploits there? Midgard is hardly deserving of your patronizing."

"No, you needn't remind me. But it would do you well to remember where you place is, who your people are."

Thor felt something break in him then, his next words snapping out, "Yes, here in Asgard where my own father conspired to keep my healing powers a secret, even from me."

"Heimdall told me you re-discovered them in dramatic fashion."

Thor ignored the comment that was likely intended to put him on the defensive about Jane. "Did Mother know?"

"No. She's a magician to the bone. She never would have allowed someone with healing magics to become a warrior."

Healing magics were rare, coveted,  _treasured_  in Asgard. Healers were trained extensively outside of normal magical education, and almost immediately put to work. What's forgotten about Asgard's massive military is that there must be healers propping them up every step of the way.

"Your magic flowed strongly towards battle. Mjolnir chose you for a reason."

"Yet you never allowed me the dignity of choosing what kind of magic I wished to pursue," Thor hissed.

Odin scoffed. "War is in your blood, Thor. Our line has always held the need for conflict, for battle running through or veins. That won't change."

"You speak as though our destinies are already writ in the Norn's tapestries."

"There's a difference between already written and following the pattern of what has come before."

"Well, perhaps you were comfortable following the pattern of your forefathers. I choose to follow my own path."

With those words, Thor turned sharply and walked away from his father. He had a ball to prepare for (and a beautiful woman to impress.)

* * *

She hadn't exactly planned to run away, but she kind of did. She rationalized that she wasn't  _ _not__  going to go to this thing. She just needed some air because the presence of the Palace staff grew stifling, not knowing where Thor was was making her antsy, and the dress suddenly felt like a vise, so she picked up her skirts and fucking bolted. She could hear Sif and Frigga calling for her, and she hated to worry them, but god she needed out and she needed out  _right_   _ _now__.

The further she ran the worse she felt because there were no glowing exit signs in Asgard's palace, so it felt like she was trapped even more than she already was.

 _Just a measly human who doesn't belong,_  Loki's voice hissed in her ear, and god now was not the time for  _that_.

Her lungs burned, not because of any sort of physical exertion, and since going outside was apparently not going to be an option, she ducked into an out of the way alcove, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes tightly. Representative of Midgard, god, why did she think this was a good idea. She was a scientist, not a political ambassador, and she was so goddamned screwed up from Loki and the Battle of Manhattan, and she was going to fuck this up and she was going to eternally screw Midgard's chances of becoming more than just the backwater little planet that nothing of value ever came from—

"Jane?"

She was going to ruin  _them_.

"How did you find me?" she asked, not opening her eyes. Her heart still felt like it was beating straight into her sternum, the blue hue that made her feel trapped threatening to encompass her once more, and Loki's voice strangely silent for now.

"I'll always find you, my love," he said, as if that explained everything. It didn't, not at all, but she felt the storm in her begin to ease at his certainty.

Without opening her eyes, she pushed off the wall, and leaned toward where she'd heard his voice.

His arms wrapped around her, and she felt the cold metal of his armor and she just wanted to feel his skin, but this would have to do.

"I'm sorry. Sif and your mom are probably angry."

"Not at all, I assure you. Sif, especially. Her first ball began much the same way yours is."

"Really?"

"Yes. She was a commoner without magic; of course she was scared."

"I'm not scared," Jane insisted into his chest.

"As surely as I am not the wielder of Mjolnir."

She finally looked up. His eyes were filled with caring, and while it slowed her heart, it did not banish her worries.

"What if I—what if I screw up? What if I screw up and no one will ever think Midgard is worth anything, that I'm just—" Jane didn't finish.

Thor leaned down and kissed her hair before he pulled away. "Need I remind you that five Midgardians repelled an entire army led by one of Asgard's foremost minds. Said army is of legendary status, recorded in the annals of history as an unstoppable, conquering force. Just  _five_  Midgardians. Midgard has earned the respect and attention of the realms, regardless of your growing reputation as a respected scholar and an honored guest of the Royal Family."

She let his words soak into her skin before she finally replied, "Respected scholar?"

He nodded. "Our scholars and magicians have been very impressed with you. They haven't been quiet in their praises."

And just like that, Jane felt her bones return, felt herself straighten and her lungs expand painlessly.

"I've got this," she said quietly.

"You've got this," Thor agreed, a delightful smile gracing his face. "Shall we, milady?" he asked, offering his arm.

"We shall," she replied, fitting her hand through the crook of his elbow like Frigga had shown her. "I didn't, um, disrupt the proceedings at all, did I?"

"The guest of honor always arrives after all others have taken their places. We shall be perfectly on time."

"Okay. Okay."

Their steps echoed in the massive hallway, and she could see the doors to the ballroom ahead of them. When the attendants caught sight of them, they started scrambling to prepare for their entrance.

"You look absolutely incredible, by the way," Thor said.

She grinned. "So do you."

She kept grinning, because she wouldn't let her insecurities ruin this day for her. She wouldn't let the scars left by Loki ruin this day for her. She was Jane Foster, and she would decide her own fate.

When they positioned themselves behind the doors, an attendant bowed deeply before them. "Your highness," he said to Thor, "Your grace," he said to Jane, "The guests are ready when you are."

Before they gave them the motion to open the doors, Jane leaned over, whispering, "Thor, for the love of all that is holy, do not let me make a fool out of myself," she ordered quietly, adjusting the skirt on her dress so that it fell more comfortably about her feet. "Keep the mead away from me and make sure I don't piss anyone off. Deal?"

He chuckled, leaning in close to press an affectionate kiss to her temple. He whispered back just before the doors opened, "Deal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Afterword:** Thank you, all of you beautiful people, for reading this far. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. A special thanks to anyone who has ever left a review or some kind/encouraging/impatient words for me. You guys are really the reason I get on here to write this stuff. Also, a lot of gratitude in my heart for my lovely shipmates/mutuals on tumblr. Y'all know who you are, and you all are the reason I'm still on that damn website ;) The quality people I have met through our mutual love of these two beautiful idiots keeps me coming back for more fic, more discussion, and more fangirling.
> 
> To those of you who are probably going to clamor for a sequel... I don't think so. I'm an incredibly busy person, and to take on another huge multichapter would just be a huge commitment that I just don't have the time or capacity for right now. I'm not going to say never, because there has always been a Dark World fix-it fic rattling around in me, and incorporating the events in this fic into TDW plot would be interesting, but for the foreseeable future, Watchtower is remaining a standalone piece.
> 
> For those of you who are disappointed, fret not. I still have quite a few Fosterson fics a-brewin.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Ace in the Hole](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3702089) by [MissChrisDaae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissChrisDaae/pseuds/MissChrisDaae)




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